Six years as Vice-Chancellor in the gem of Öresund is enough. The Vice-Chancellor of Campus Helsingborg, Jesper Falkheimer will step down at the turn of the year.
A mix between being eloquent and being a fair negotiator. That is how Jesper Falkheimer, Vice-Chancellor of Campus Helsingborg, characterises the post he has had since 2011; a post he will leave at the turn of the year.
“Time to move on”
The posts of Vice-Chancellor at the University is six years. But although Jesper Falkheimer was asked by the Vice-Chancellor of Lund University, Torbjörn von Schantz, whether he would stay on another six years, he chooses to step down and move on.
“It is time for something new. I am satisfied with Campus Helsingborg and the position we have established for ourselves; now is just the right time to leave,” he says.
“We have become a stable part of Lund University and managed to develop our collaboration with the municipality of Helsingborg. I feel satisfied – and then, it is wise to step down,” he says.
He thinks the decision was quite easy to make, in spite of good relations with both colleagues and the University management.
“My relationship with the advisor to the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of the management of the University has been splendid. I find that we have had steady support in our developmental process in Helsingborg,” he says.
Stays around Campus
However, although Jesper Falkheimer steps down from his current position at the University, he will neither leave Helsingborg, nor academia.
As of 2017, he will return to his position as full-time Professor at the Department of Strategic Communication, and will continue doing research. He does not, however, know what awaits him in a more distant future.
“We will just have to wait and see. To start with, I will return to my position as a full-time Professor. That will be interesting,” Jesper Falkheimer says with a laugh.
Satisfied with municipal cooperation
Much has happened at Campus Helsingborg since Jesper Falkheimer took the position of Vice-Chancellor. The programmes at Campus Helsingborg are some out of few that will actually raise their numbers of applicants this coming autumn semester, and Jesper Falkheimer has experienced that a closer collaboration with both Helsingborg Municipality and the University has been of good.
“The fact that we have been able to launch research platforms with regional anchorage is great, so is the new and beautiful union premises, Helsingborgen,” he says.
But there are still things to be done.
“Campus Helsingborg is a part of Lund University that has great development potential. It has been a clear goal for a long time to make it an integrated part of the University, but simultaneously to have a clear connection with the Municipality, offering opportunities for collaboration,” he says and he thinks that there is great potential for future research in the region.
Is there anything you would have wanted to do but have not?
“I would probably have liked to establish more programmes, as well as to improve study environment here. Our premises are nice, but with poor layout planning. That is a financial question though. I am pleased with the last six years,” he says.
Now, there is some work to be done by a drafting committee, to find someone to replace Jesper Falkheimer. He himself has a few pointers about what is needed:
“Diplomacy is important. So is being able to fill a communicative function between the city and the University, as well as being interested in collaboration. It is important that the person can function both internally within the University and in the world outside it – and that is not the easiest task in the world,” he says.
Translation: Richard Helander
