“I want to have more time to spend on myself and my family – and I look forward to bringing my skills within biology into play again,” says Finn Borchsenius, who has worked at Aarhus University for 35 years, eight of which he spent as vice-dean for education at the Faculty of Technical Sciences and the former Faculty of Science and Technology. 

He has been involved in a number of major changes at the faculties. He was vice-dean when Nat and Tech were divided into two separate faculties. He was also at the helm to help Tech's degree programmes navigate the corona lockdowns. He helped organise the four new engineering departments, and he played an important part in the establishment of the three new degree programmes at AU Viborg.

If you look back at Finn Borchsenius' career, you will see that he has tried a bit of everything. He spent two years in Ecuador, where he studied the plants of the rainforest and learned to speak Spanish fluently. Botanists have even named two tropical plants after him. He then spent a few years living in Malaysia.

When it was time to renovate the greenhouses in the Botanical Gardens in Aarhus a little over ten years ago, it was Finn Borchsenius who was in charge of obtaining the right plants and finding just the right places for them in the beautiful new dome. The new greenhouses have since attracted many more visitors. Before the expansion, the Greenhouses received almost 45,000 visitors a year. That number has now increased to 300,000 visitors a year.

Finn Borchsenius has navigated his career according to three basic principles: Share his deep interest in nature; Work to preserve plants and wildlife; And last but not least; meet students at their level.

“My motivation has always been to create better education for students. And to do so, I believe it’s necessary to meet them at eye level, because not everyone is on a programme for the same reason or with the same prerequisites. Some want to change the world, while others want to cultivate their deep-seeded interest in a particular area. I’ve tried to make the degree programmes more recipient-oriented, so we think more about what the students get out of studying with us,” he says.

Finn Borchsenius will step down as vice-dean for education at Tech on 1 April but will help with the handover to the new vice-dean until the summer holidays. On 1 August, he will start his new role as head of the Herbarium and the Greenhouses.

There will be a farewell reception for Finn Borchsenius on 21 March 2025 from 13:00 to 15:00. Sign up here (no later than 7 March)