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Education is key to freedom

Minister for Higher Education and Science Ulla Tørnæs' speech at CBS' Annual Celebration Galla Friday 18 March 2016.

Dear board of directors
Dear staff
Dear students
Dear guests

Thank you so much for inviting me to take part in your celebrations tonight. I am thankful and happy to stand here as your minister of higher education and science.

I understand that this year, CBS is celebrating its 99th birthday. And I have to say – you have never looked better!

If I look as good as CBS on my 99th birthday, I will be very thankful.

The change of CBS

Education is the key to freedom.

Through education, studies and research CBS is giving keys of freedom to thousands of candidates every year. And I would like to thank you for that.

To educate yourself is to embrace change.

And in the long life of this school, CBS has also changed a lot.

I studied English and French here in the mid-eighties. CBS looked quite different back then.

Today I find the buildings of CBS light, modern and welcoming. But to be honest: My first experience with this school was quite the contrary.

I studied in a red, dark and dusty building situated on Fabrikvej. In English that means Factory Road. I mean – does that name not say it all?

Quite ironic to study at a modern western business school in a building that reminded me of the former Sovjet Union!

CBS has evolved a lot since then. Once a place on a quiet road, I believe it is now probably the only business school in the world with several busy metro stations!

And as I arrived here today, I saw a school embracing the possibilities of a new, globalised economy.

CBS educates students who match the need of the labour market. In general, your candidates have the third lowest level of unemployment compared to candidates from other Danish universities.

Your entrepreneurship, your research and your ideas hold the promise of the future.

Denmark faces economic challenges. Therefore, the public sector as a whole has to work more efficiently and cut down spending in order to maintain our welfare. After years of budgetary increases in education, the cuts now also include education and science. CBS has also felt that. The current economy challenges all of us.

But challenges also hold great opportunities for those who are ready to seize them.

And to the students of CBS, studying and taking an education, working hard, and focusing on getting a job after the studies have never been more important.

It gives you, students at CBS, the best offset to achieve your own goals in life. To have the best possible key to freedom. At the same time, Danish businesses need your competences, your skills and your ideas like never before. So keep on going.

Quality and excellence at CBS

After 99 years of change, this school indeed has a lot to celebrate.

Today, CBS is among the one percent business schools in the world holding a Triple Crown accreditation. Congratulations to you. You have important and inspiring programs to promote elite performances among your students. And you work to achieve excellence at all levels among your staff .

That effort holds great value to me and serves as a source of inspiration in my future work.

I wish to improve our focus on quality and excellence.

In the recent years, I find that we have focused too much on quantity, which means the number of students getting through our education system. We wanted as many people as possible to get a higher education degree.

It was an understandable and sympathetic ambition. No doubt about that. But time has come to turn our focus to quality. Quantity and quality must go hand in hand in the future.

I wish for the Danish educational system to provide great candidates and great research for the benefit of our companies and our society as a whole. To achieve that, our schools must focus on quality and excellence.

In this matter, CBS serves as a great source of inspiration.

Entrepreneurship at CBS

CBS also has strong ties to the business community.   The Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship is one of the most successful student incubators in Denmark. It has bred more than 100 start-ups founded by students.

Well done!

Once these grounds were home to expensive porcelain bowls, plates, and cups from Royal Copenhagen. Products that are still sold and sought after all over the world. But today, you have filled the old buildings of Royal Copenhagen with ideas, thoughts and initiative that have the potential to tenfold that value.

I want to acknowledge and congratulate you at CBS for your accomplishment.

I would also like to thank the many private companies represented here tonight for your contribution to all the different initiatives concerning entrepreneurship and collaboration here at CBS.

You provide inspiration on how businesses and business schools together can make one plus one become three.

Denmark does not have a Silicon Valley. But if you keep it up, maybe we could establish a Porcelain Valley here at Frederiksberg!

CBS candidates are generally in great demand among Danish companies.

But far too many young Danes experience the disappointment of finishing a higher education, being ready to put their skills to use in the labour market – only to realise that their dream-education does not open the door to their dream-job.

And in some cases there even – to no job at all.

I see this as a great challenge. And I feel a great responsibility to meet this challenge.

I will work to ensure a better match between the demands of the labour market and the skills of candidates that we educate.

What a nightmare to be young and graduate with flying colours - only to face that no one needs your competences.

We have to change this!

International cooperation at CBS

Finally, I would like to acknowledge CBS for your international popularity and position.

One of five students here at CBS is international. In addition, more than one in three CBS graduates from 2014 went abroad as part of their education.

Back when I was a student I travelled to Chambéry in France to study and improve my French.

And I still remember stepping out of the train scared to death of how I would ever make it there. But it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life.

International cooperation and exchange is of highest importance to Denmark. It strengthens our research, our knowledge and our businesses when candidates can contribute with skills and perspectives from around the world.

To all of you students and staff who have come to CBS from other countries, I would like to warmly welcome you all.

We are so happy to have you among us!

Final salute

As I said in the beginning, to educate yourself is to embrace change. And the coming years will hold great opportunities of change for us all.

In almost a century, CBS has been an important driver for change in Danish society through research, education and entrepreneurship.

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last modified November 03, 2023