1a The Aarhus University Strategy 2008-2012: Focused talent developmentThis action plan for Aarhus University's PhD programmes is intended to contribute to the university's development and implementation of strategies for its core ac-tivities, specifically the core activity of ‘Focused Talent Development’. On the subject of focused talent development, the Aarhus University Strategy 2008-2012: Quality and Diversity contains the following statement:The aims and objectives of Aarhus University are:• to ensure that the quality of the PhD degree programmes compares fa-vourably with the best in the world• to recruit top talents from Denmark and abroad to unique environments, where they feel free to pursue the unexpected• to double the number of researchers educated and developed at the uni-versity from 2008 to 2012• to offer a consistent researcher development programme for the greatest talents from the Bachelor’s degree levelThe University of Aarhus has decided:• to strengthen the university’s strategic international alliances• to create a financial framework that enables the researcher development environments to be characterised by creativity and curiosity• to ensure that the university’s best researchers can give priority to advising and coaching at Master’s degree, PhD degree and postdoctoral levels• to offer five-year researcher development programmes which allow qualified candidates to develop their competencies in the context of a coherent programme, for example from BA to PhD level or from Master’s level up to and including postdoctoral levelIn addition to the general strategy document cited above, Aarhus University's work with strategic planning has thus far resulted in the formulation of strategies for each of the university’s nine main academic areas as well as for selected criti-cal issues, including internationalisation. These strategies provide the framework for the university's activities within a given area for a five-year period, first and foremost by articulating specific visions and objectives.The present action plan details concrete initiatives for the realisation of these stra-tegic visions and objectives for a specific aspect of focused talent development at Aarhus University: PhD education. The decision to focus on this specific dimension of talent development is anything but arbitrary. Universities all over the world are currently prioritising doctoral edu-cation [Global PhD]. As evidenced by the aims and objectives outlined above, Aarhus University has set extremely ambitious talent development goals, not least with reference to its PhD degree programmes. The university's goal is to foster PhD programmes comparable in quality to the best in the world, while at the same time increasing the number of researchers it trains and develops. This goal alone represents an extraordinary demand for a focused effort at all levels of the uni-versity, from the highest levels of administration down to the individual staff member, particularly in light of the current intense global focus on PhD education.Thus, this action plan focuses specifically and exclusively on PhD education at Aarhus University. This narrow focus is the result of a conscious choice made in full awareness of the fact that the university’s strategy and initiatives with regard to PhD programmes require coordination with the strategies and initiatives devel-oped for a number of other areas. To take one example, because PhD education is (as already described) treated in Aarhus University’s general strategy for talent development, the present plan must be coordinated with a general plan for the university’s initiatives to promote the other aspects of the broader talent development programme (postdoctoral stud-ies, tenure track, etc.). Yet another example relates to the university’s strategy and initiatives
