3. Involvement and meetings

With this principle, the language policy clarifies that employees’ and students’ participation in councils, boards, and committees (at all levels of the organisation) should not a priori be determined by their language competence.

Danish tends to be considered the default working language of boards, councils, committees, and working groups in the higher levels of the university organizational system (e.g., boards of study, academic councils, assessment and hiring committees). In some departments and research settings English is used more frequently. In both cases, it is important that the default language choice does not lead to exclusion of relevant members of the university, whether they be academic and administrative staff members or students.

The principle also stresses that efforts should be made to ensure a flexible approach to the use of language. This should be seen as an invitation to think about language choice in more creative terms than simply using either Danish or English. The language options available to a given group will vary and change over time depending on the composition of the group and the linguistic competence of its members. The following tried-and-tested options may serve as inspiration: 

• Danish and English as joint languages. In cases where all participants have receptive skills in Danish and English but have different preferences when it comes to speaking (either Danish or English), a meeting can be held using Danish and English in conjunction. The same principle could be adopted in written communication amongst participants.
  
  
• One presentation, two languages. To aid understanding at meetings where Danish is used for presentations, accompanying slides with key points can be prepared in English (or vice versa).
  
  
• Use of a multilingual mediator. At meetings where not all participants have sufficient listening abilities in Danish/English, points made in Danish/English could be summarized in English/Danish immediately following the speaker’s turn, either by the speaker or a designated mediator (as per the speaker’s preference). This enables participants to use their preferred language for making contributions, without excluding participants who do not understand the language in question. The principle can be extended to other languages. 

• Summaries in English of written material. If extensive material is circulated in Danish before a meeting, it may – depending on available resources – be accompanied by brief summaries in English (or vice versa). This works best if a designated person is available to respond to questions from readers who cannot access the main text in the original language.

For further inspiration see the appendices 2 and 3 in the background paper to the UCPH language policy.

For management, it is vital to establish a local culture and specific procedures that will ensure that language choice in councils, boards, and committees is regularly discussed. The importance of having an ongoing and open conversation about language choice and the challenges and opportunities it involves cannot be overestimated.

Employees may be prevented from attending or reluctant to volunteer for work in councils, boards, and committees if the default assumption is that full mastery of the given language is required. It is the responsibility of management to ensure that situations like this do not arise.

To help build and sustain an open environment for language learning and language use, it may be a good idea to engage in dialogue with colleagues and explicitly encourage them to use Danish and/or English irrespective of their level of competence in the language(s) used. It’s important for management to actively engage in this process and recognize that most employees use English and/or Danish as a foreign/second language.

The topic can also meaningfully be brought up at the annual MUS or GRUS, either by employees or by management, with a view to determining whether it would relevant and useful to pursue language courses or other options for language learning. Management will play a key role here in providing a flexible framework for employees who want to improve their language skills (see more under Principle 6.1 and 6.2).

CIP can facilitate workshops for departments or other units at UCPH that would like inspiration on implementing the language policy locally. We have developed various workshop formats that are useful for facilitating what can be quite difficult conversations about language.

CIP also offers tailor-made language courses in Danish or English – for individuals or groups – focused on language needs associated with specific activities at the university, for example, study board meetings.

If you’re interested in knowing more about what we offer at CIP, please contact us at cip@hum.ku.dk or +45 35 32 86 39.