Values, strategy and principles

Mission

ITU is the driving force in digital development in society through internationally leading teaching, research, and societal engagement. Through interdisciplinarity, research expertise, and innovation, ITU makes Denmark exceptionally good at creating value with IT.

Vision

In engagement with and for the benefit of society, we create and provide deep knowledge in IT that leads to groundbreaking solutions for humanity.

Values

The IT University has 3 core values that serve as a guideline for the daily work at the university:

Direction-finding
Forthcoming
Accountable

Strategies

ITU Strategy 2026-2030

Basic principles

The IT University of Copenhagen strategy rests on three basic principles.

Basic principle 1: A Unique View on IT

IT is digital technologies designed to handle mental constructions such as written text, music, drawings and software. This basic principle permeates both the study programmes and the research conducted at the IT University that harbour different perspectives on digital technologies (computers, mobile phones, 'smart' aids, etc.). The (traditional) technological perspective including e.g. study programmes in software and research into health technology is supplemented at the IT University with design- or communication perspectives for example in the study programme in interaction design as well as research into social media. A third perspective is the business aspect, which comprises programmes in global innovation processes as well as research into the collaboration between organisations and IT.

The different perspectives on IT can be illustrated using a triangle, where the angles are: Business, design and technology. The programmes offered at the IT University can all be placed within this triangle. Each programme focuses on a section of the triangle, but emphasises an understanding for and interplay with the other perspectives. This approach to IT, illustrated by the triangle, was unique when the IT University was founded but has since become increasingly popular at a number of other Danish IT education programmes.

Basic principle 2: Education

To create value with IT requires profound competencies in areas of societal relevance. This permeates the IT University’s view of the ideal education programme: It must attract many top-level students, be of the highest academic standard and provide competencies that are in high demand on the job market. It is important to emphasise that all three qualities are of equal importance, it is not enough that the academic standard is high and that it is in demand on the job market.

It has proved difficult to design programmes that fulfil all three qualities and thereby balance between the three considerations. Difficult, but luckily not impossible. Today, the IT University's programmes on both bachelor and graduate level enjoy a high rate of applicants, a high academic standard and a high level of employment for graduates.

Basic principle 3: Research

The basic principle governing research at the IT University is that it must be motivated by both a desire to create new insight and to be useful. The research therefore often takes its starting point in a societal challenge, such as energy supply, critical infrastructure or the role of IT in democracy. The research must challenge existing knowledge such as e.g. the way that software is developed, the use and misuse of social media or established business models.

Research results are unpredictable; that is why the basic principle is about what motivates the research rather than setting actual demands for the result. Quality is measured in terms of the degree to which the result challenges existing knowledge, for example through the recognition inherent in the fact that others use the research to create a societal value with IT or as a starting point for new research. Both are vital to the success of the IT University’s mission to contribute to making “Denmark exceptionally good at creating value through IT”.