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CBS Annual Celebration I would like to thank you all for the invitation. It was grand last year.
It is a great honour to be asked to speak today. I took that as I personal compliment of course.
And that is why I took a break from my campaign to be here. I have been fighting the good fight for a number of weeks now, and there is usually not time for breaks during an election campaign, but...
I am fighting hard for equality for all Danes in the coming election. I cannot accept that there are such unjust differences between us - differences that have an impact on the quality of life every single day.
I am of course talking about the water pressure campaign. Other people here with big hair? It’s great.
And the election of members to the local water board in Copenhagen. Not in Frederiksberg. Here you understand people with big hair. Let’s give Frederiksberg a hand.
Some have the luxury of fantastic water pressure that rinses the shampoo out every time. And some do not. It’s a scandal, you know. Those of us with thick hair are being discriminated against. And I’m sure this travesty has concerned you all, just as much as it has me. Otherwise you would not have arranged this fundraising event – would you?
Per, you told them, that this is a fundraiser - right? No? Okay then. Fair enough. We will stick to the main purpose of today - which is to celebrate you. To celebrate CBS.
For a Venstre man like myself, it has always been a pleasure to come to CBS. In the 80s and 90s, most students here were young liberals that welcomed us Venstre types with open arms. Like the liberal front line fighters that we were!
But since then... I’m not sure what happened. Per, it looks like you have encouraged them to think independently. Madness.
I believe you now even have students who would consider voting for softies like Radikale Venstre, or worse. But we’ll try to move past that. We are gathered here today to celebrate one hundred and one years of CBS.
Despite its advancing years, CBS is still going strong. You keep up with the times, are enterprising, and plan for the future. CBS could be called a real “seen-ager”.
Seen-ager is a new term that has appeared in the Danish language, a combination of senior and teenager. One could also call it the “age of experience”. The time when you can draw on all the experiences you have gathered during a long life.
Seen-agers do not feel old. They stay healthy and are in good shape. They do not rest easy without dreams, ambitions and goals for the future. Quite the opposite.
They have the energy to travel the world and engage with all. In other words, it is not a bad way to describe CBS.
Or your rector. A genuine seen-ager in fine form.
Need for innovative students
But back to why we are here - to celebrate CBS.
Last year I paid tribute to your collaboration with the private sector. This year, I would like to honour your engagement in innovation. Because we need innovative students and employees to perform well in a global competition for innovation and development.
It is therefore important to support creativity and the entrepreneurial urge. Something which you are quite good at here at CBS.
For example, the CBS career portal Career Gate is run by former students. And students arrange – let’s give them a hand - the CBS Case Competition, which has just successfully concluded. Congratulations on a great result!
Your close collaboration with the private sector and other institutions is also remarkable. CBS practices a true open door policy.
Just look at the student incubator community Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship where you welcome in students from other universities. A mecca for student start-ups.
You also reach out to the world and collaborate with international universities for a truly global education.
You offer study placements at excellent international universities and open your own doors to thousands of foreign students, creating even more value for Denmark.
Much of the teaching takes place in English - it’s as international as it can be. It’s a very, very good thing that my parliamentary colleagues don’t have a clue of what is going on here.
If my colleagues in Venstre spotted you, you would probably have been incorporated into the state relocation plan and CBS could have become Brønderslev or Rødekro Business School - planted firmly in the soft Danish soil.
Need for critical students
But in this chaotic world, where stupid comedians and ridiculous populists win the vote, we need independent, critical businessmen and women, capable of challenging the establishment. And that is what you are producing.
We need young people who have learned to form their own opinions and stand on a foundation of bildung - an all-round formative education.
Young people who are not afraid of change, because they have a strong core - a strong inner compass. Young people with a desire for discussion, and who take responsibility for their own education. And participate actively and critically in the public debate.
I actually want to say something serious tonight also. I really want to state that the generation of young people we are seeing these years is the most astounding generation of young people we have ever seen in Denmark.
And the reason for which I say this is because you know – again a bit serious – now we are seeing some horrible television news on what actually went on in the 70es. We have seen how the perception was of the relationship between the young people and their parents.
And then something changes. And there was many discussions. And today we see politicians like myself all the time asking young people to be faster, to be smarter, to be better. And they are not complaining. No, I’m actually serious. They are actually doing exactly what we are asking them to do. Maybe we should cut them some slack.
So Per, I hope you will continue to work with these values and this approach to the entire culture here, so that they become a natural part of the CBS spirit.
I know you already made headway with building in the 1980s. I have been told that CBS did not have a piano during the yuppie years. The only things of value were slicked back hair and briefcases for the compendia. I myself I still remember my very fine briefcase at high school over in Rønne on the island of Bornholm. I also wore a tie. I was the only one.
But since then the government of the day introduced boards to the universities – the Venstre-Konservative government of course. And in the first board at CBS in 2003, one of the student representatives was a young man from Jutland: Thøger Lund-Sørensen.
One of his first key issues as chair of the “Moderate Students” was to advocate for a piano for CBS. For how can it be that an institute of higher learning in the land of Grundtvig did not have a piano?
I see now that there is a grand piano in the large auditorium at Solbjerg Plads. It is also worth incorporating small changes.
Congratulations on 101 years
The term seen-ager also suggests that the first period of youth has passed. Even though you are hale and hearty, the end is in sight - far off of course, but still present.
That is not how I see CBS. Instead I see a teenager full of youthful daring for the future. You continue your strategic and ambitious work in the digital area. You are innovative and attract inventive and enterprising students who help CBS flourish - also outside our national borders.
You have prime seats on the development train, which is hurtling towards the future.
The results of your targeted efforts are already tangible. CBS graduates are highly sought-after, and unemployment rates for your new graduates are lower than at other universities.
You have a lot to be proud of. CBS is nowhere near its twilight years. You are in your prime.
Congratulations on one hundred and one years.
Thank you.