By Anette Marcher, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

The new department structure at the SSH Faculty has now finally been determined. After a three-month process involving staff, department managements, the Faculty Consultation Committee and the Academic Council, the rector has now approved that, as of 1 January 2026 AAU's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) will consist of four departments instead of the current six.

Specifically, the following happens: 

• As of 1 January 2026, degree programmes, research environments and administrations from the current Department of Culture and Learning and the Department of Communication and Psychology will form a new unified department, referred to for now as 'Department 1'.
• As of 1 January 2026, degree programmes, research environments and administrations from the current Department of Politics and Society and the Department of Sociology and Social Work will form a new unified department, referred to for now as 'Department 2'.
• AAU Business School (AAUBS) will continue as a department in its current form. In the future, the department will join an administrative collaboration with the Department of Law.
• The Department of Law will continue as a department. In the future, the department will join an administrative collaboration with AAUBS.

"With the new structure, we will have four departments and three administrations, each of which appears academically and financially sustainable. And they need to be in order to meet the challenges we can see ahead of us: declining youth cohorts, limited budgets and politically determined reforms," says Dean Rasmus Antoft.

Although the new department structure has now been finally established, there are still a number of questions and issues that need clarification before it takes effect on 1 January 2026. Among other things, the names of the two new departments and how the administrative collaboration between the Department of Law and AAU Business School will work.

There are also a few research environments that have expressed a desire to move from one department to another, and the internal structure of the departments needs to be clarified. On the part of the Dean's Office, there is a desire for a more uniform internal organization of academic staff in sections. 

The first step, however, will be to determine the new department managements. The process of appointing heads of department and administrative heads is underway. 

Throughout the process, Dean Rasmus Antoft has wanted a broad involvement of the faculty's staff. For example, a qualitative survey was sent out to all staff members, which was discussed locally and answered collectively in different organizational units.

"A restructuring is always associated with unrest and ambivalence for those involved. But I have sensed a constructive commitment to the process everywhere in the organization, and I greatly appreciate all the input and insightful ideas that resulted, says Rasmus Antoft.

Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs