"Making a difference for students motivates me"

Kim Moesgaard Iburg quickly stepped forward when Mette Vinther Skriver had to leave the position as director of studies for the public health science degree programme ahead of time to become the deputy head of department for education at the Department of Public Health. And he has no regrets.

"I was also the director of studies in 2020 and 2021 – during the two Covid years. It was an intense introduction to the job, with a very steep learning curve. We had almost daily meetings about adjustments and changes. About how we should deal with new guidelines and with streaming, illness and cancellations. So, there was a lot going on, and other things were given lower priority. This includes my own research during that period," says Kim Moesgaard Iburg and continues:

"On the other hand, we all worked very well together; with the Board of Studies, internally at the department, across the faculty and with HE Studies Administration. There was a strong team spirit and a shared ambition to make things succeed in spite of everything."

When the position became vacant again, there was no doubt in his mind, and now, after being away for a year, Kim Moesgaard Iburg is back at the head of the table on the Board of Studies for Public Health Science.
 

Being part of a working community is rewarding

"I sort of missed it to be honest – the contact with others who are also more hands on with education, and feeling that perhaps you’re making a small difference for students everyday. You’re usually very alone in research, and actually also in teaching, so taking on other tasks is professionally and socially rewarding. The difficult thing is to prioritise them," says Kim Moesgaard Iburg.

As the director of studies, he is the vice-dean's contact to the degree programme, and he appreciates the good collaboration with Lise Wogensen Bach and with the Forum for Education at Health.

"I enjoy being the link between the vice-dean, the department, the Studies Administration, the teachers and the students. It makes sense, and you can see that the work you're doing is making a difference," says Kim Moesgaard Iburg.  

The mission is to educate the best possible graduates

He sees his most important task as the director of studies as running the public health science degree programme in the best possible way and with the highest possible academic quality under the given framework. All Kim Moesgaard Iburg wants is to educate the best possible public health science graduates, but he acknowledges that sometimes it is the art of the possible.

"As an economist, I’d like us to maximise utility, but at the same time, we have a budget for what is possible. Among our challenges are time, teaching staff and rooms that need to be optimised and used in the best possible way. It’s exciting and important to solve these challenges," he says.

The coming years will include a number of initiatives for Kim Moesgaard Iburg and his colleagues in the Forum for Education at Health and on the Board of Studies. Some initiatives derive from the faculty's focus areas, and some initiatives will be launched by Kim Moesgaard Iburg himself and the Board of Studies. One of the initiatives he mentions is to prepare students to become digitally competent graduates and competency development of teaching staff on the degree programme to enable them to implement more digital methods and applications in their courses.

"The Board of Studies at the public health science degree programme has just participated in a pilot project on digital skills, which will soon be rolled out on all degree programmes at the faculty. We will also hold a summer camp for students at the end of August. The camp is an extracurricular activity on the use of registry data, which we are organising together with our colleagues from Aarhus BSS. And initiatives have been launched on internationalisation and collaboration with other universities. So, there's definitely plenty to do," says the new director of studies.

 

Contact

Associate Professor, Director of Studies and PhD Kim Moesgaard Iburg
Aarhus University, Department of Public Health
Mobile: +45 31 31 59 21
Email: kmi@ph.au.dk