The Scandinavian School of Brewing and The ... - Scandbrewrev.dk

Henrik Siegumfeldt,director of studies andassociate professor at LIFE.

The Scandinavian School of Brewing and The Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen Join Forces on the Master Brewer programmeworld’s third largest dairy company, Arla, is a prominent member.We are confident that the educational cooperation between theDairy Association and ourselves has been instrumental in thedevelopment of the Danish dairy industry to its current world-classposition and reputation in that we have continuously been able tosupply the industry with candidates that possess precisely the skillsthat are in demand. We immediately saw opportunities in applyingthis very successful model also on the master brewer programmein cooperation with the Scandinavian School of Brewing and theDanish Brewers’ Association’.Where do you see the most important mutual synergiesbetween the brewing industry and the brewers in it andthe academic universe in your faculty and beyond at theUniversity of Copenhagen? And do you see any futurepossibilities for developing the partnership – PhD projectsfor master brewers or the like?are carried out within a specific company, but with a supervisorfrom KU LIFE, and that focus on addressing the technologicalchallenges faced by the host company’.‘KU LIFE is also active at the EU level in acting as catalystfor and participating in large research projects that involvecompeting companies within fields where there is consensusthat the industries at large need to achieve improvements. Inthese areas, such partnerships result in a generally higher levelof technology and know-how in the European companieswithin those industries, and they are motivated to cooperateby knowing that when an improvement is needed by all playersin the industry, the costs of bringing it about may as well beshared,’ finishes Per Holten-Andersen.Our first question to Axel G. Kristiansen, director at theScandinavian School of Brewing, was:Per Holten-Andersen: ‘For all our industry-specificstudy programmes, we have the main objective of alwaystrying our utmost to build and adjust them to exactly what theindustries want, and in respect for the current quality level ofthe master brewer programme, we do not have any plans tosubject it to major changes on the short term. For these typesof educational programmes, we always establish a ‘CurriculumDevelopment Committee’ chaired by the industry, and sucha committee will also be established for the master brewerprogramme with the purpose of continuously evaluating theprogramme, the changing conditions in the industry, and howthese translate into needs for adjustments of the programme.Having said this, we do not, on the other hand, have intentionsof keeping the master brewer programme static. Throughour extensive cooperation with the most outstanding foodscience faculties at international universities, we expect to beable to bring more international cutting-edge elements intothe education, and, furthermore, there are significant potentialsynergies between the master brewer programme and thenumerous general disciplines that we give high priority at KULIFE, including sensory science, health and food safety, foodquality and quality management, servicing the between three and4,000 large student body from Bachelor through to PhD levels’.Per Holten-Andersen adds that he sees several otherperspectives for developing the master brewer programme andbuilding both very advanced practical and academic extensionson top of it. ‘Among these is our partnership with the DanishNational Advanced Technology Foundation that offers cofundingof specific, so-called “Industrial PhD” degrees whichThe master brewer programme has traditionally been thecornerstone in the Scandinavian School of Brewing. Howdo you see the future consequences for the other activitiesat the school and the effects on the future development ofthe school of this cooperation with KU LIFE on the masterbrewer programme?“With regard to the master brewer programme,it should be understood thatthe Board of the Scandinavian School ofBrewing sees the cooperation with KULIFE as a possibility of maintaining thehigh standard of education in connectionwith the traditional courses.Axel G. Kristiansen: ‘The SSB will, with usual interestand enthusiasm, continue to develop and run courses forthe beverage industry from our usual address in Valby.This pertains for example to our ‘Brewing Course’, the new‘Executive in Beverage Supply Chains’ course, the educationfor microbrewers, and various introduction courses tobrewing, flavour evaluation, cider course and various in-16 SCANDINAVIAN BREWERS’ REVIEW . VOL.67 NO.6 2010