More places for international students, but will they come?

Study places for the increased number of English-language taught masters programmes to be offered from 2024 have been allocated among Denmark’s universities. However, there is still unease about what broader reforms to the masters degree landscape mean for Denmark and its international students.

Aimed largely at international students, the study places have been distributed in accordance with a political agreement on masters degree reform reached last year by the government, together with four parties: the Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti, SF), the Conservatives, Liberal Alliance and Denmark Democrats (Danmarksdemokraterne).

In terms of the agreement, Aalborg University, Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School, the University of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen University will each be allocated 180 places.

Additionally, the Technical University of Denmark has 93 places, IT University of Copenhagen 82, and Roskilde University 25, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science earlier this month.

The agreement stipulates that in each year from 2024 to 2028 1,100 additional study places taught in English will be established and from 2029, 2,500 study places. The total number of English taught masters degrees places will increase from 12,003 in 2022 to 13,103 in 2024.

The places will be largely focused on academic fields for which there is a demand from the Danish business sector and will be available across the country, notably in areas outside the three largest cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense.

Responding to news of the distribution of places, Laura Klitgaard, president of the Danish Society of Engineers, was quoted by business newspaper Børsen, saying: “Finally there are more international students in sight.”

She said it was excellent that international students are being “regarded as a part of the solution” to the country’s person power needs. “We are going to take away unnecessary obstacles and heighten the tempo [in the recruitment]”, she is quoted as having said.

The decision to increase English-taught masters places, taken last year, represents one of the most significant university reforms in Denmark over the last decades and is part of a broader restructuring process aimed at changing the masters educational landscape.

Proposals currently under discussion include the shortening of some of the country’s two-year masters programmes, and an emphasis on business-related degrees.

Deliberation in the candidate committee responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Reform Commission has taken five months and the committee has a deadline of October 2024 to deliver its recommendations.

Leaked information

Information from the deliberations was leaked via two articles by online newspaper Altinget newspaper in January, which set out possible models for the new masters degree landscape.

On 23 January Altinget noted that shorter masters degrees were on the cards that would “improve the options for flexibility” and that business experience was going to be a prominent feature of the new landscape.

Laura Louise Sarauw, associate professor at Roskilde University, who was given sight of the leaked committee documents by Altinget for the purposes of securing her comment on the proposals, told University World News, she had concerns about the lack of “continuity and in-depth specialised knowledge” that characterised the proposed masters plan.

“The reform entails that 30% of study spaces at the current two-year master programmes (120 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System [ECTS]) will be replaced by either new shorter masters programmes lasting 1¼ years (75 ECTS, 10% of the study spaces), or so-called professional masters programme, where the student works and educates themselves concurrently (20% of the study spaces),” she said.

“While the government is advocating for the reform under the [banner] of flexibility, asserting that students should have greater freedom to combine different courses within the new 75 ECTS master programmes, my concern is that with more freedom comes less continuity and in-depth specialised knowledge.

“This issue of fragmented knowledge is already acknowledged in the current 120 ECTS programmes, where students have a multitude of choices, such as taking optional courses in other institutions or completing courses in a non-linear fashion. If we now envisage these same programmes being condensed to 75 ECTS, students will have even less time to acquire the necessary depth of specialised knowledge and competences,” she explained.

Risk of overflow to shorter degrees

Brian Arly Jacobsen, an associate professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen and chair of DM University, a union for academic professionals, said based on preliminary work in the national candidate committee and the agreement between the government and some of the opposition parties, he had a “pessimistic view regarding the implementation and outcome of the reform for attracting international students to the reformed masters degrees”.

Jacobsen told University World News the reform – specifically, the business masters programme – had so far been a limited success based on an analysis from 2023.

“If the programme fails to become significantly more attractive, there’s a risk of an overflow to the shorter masters programmes. This situation suggests that despite the introduction of new and flexible business masters degrees intended to play a central role in the transformation of ideas and ambitions into tangible reality at universities, there are substantial challenges ahead.

“With a plan to overhaul 30% of current masters programs – converting 10% into shorter programmes of 75 ECTS and 20% into business masters degrees – the stakes are high,” he said.

“However, the underlying concern is the potential failure to attract enough students to these new business masters tracks. Should this happen, a reallocation would be necessary, pushing more students towards opting for the shorter 75 ECTS masters programmes instead,” he explained.

Jacobsen also highlighted possible challenges from the perspective of companies. “What do they gain from a large number of business masters graduates, whose education and training they have to take care of in a committed partnership with the universities?” he asked.

“In light of these findings, it appears that the reform may not achieve its intended goal of making the masters degrees more appealing to international students – or Danish students.

“This outcome could ultimately diminish the international appeal and competitiveness of the country’s universities, rather than enhancing them as intended,” Jacobsen said.

International students

Hanne Leth Andersen, rector of Roskilde University and a member of the national candidate committee, said it was important to note that the four parties have already successfully pushed for adjustments to the government's original proposal that 50% of masters students would be required to take shorter degrees.

This percentage is now 30%, “of which one third must be one-year masters programmes – the rest could be erhvervskandidat (two-year masters programme) or kandidat med erhvervselementer (masters with business elements)”, she said.

Andersen said that while international students might be attracted to the new masters programmes, the government’s aim to “have them stay and work for some time in Denmark may be less realistic”.

She explained: “Universities have been promised a better taximeter [budget allocation] for these programs, so more pedagogical development, smaller cohorts, and more feedback are possible.

“But with only one year and an obligation to live up to the masters level 7 in Bologna terms, there will be little room (if any) for exchange, internship and collaboration with the business community in general, which can be problematic for both Danish and international students.

“With only one year of studies, and less connection to business and work life and less time to learn a bit of Danish, international students will be less likely to stay and work in Denmark.

“The business masters programs might be interesting for international students, but that requires them to get a real job with – as it stands now – at least 25 hours of work per week.”

A ‘zig-zag’ in policy

Susan Wright, professor of educational anthropology at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University, told University World News, the reforms represented “the latest zig-zag” in higher education policy in Denmark.

“Recent years saw drastic reductions in degree places and programmes offered in English in order to cut numbers of international students – on the grounds that Danish taxpayers’ funding of free education and student grants should be primarily for Danes. A recent shock realisation that the declining birth rate threatens the survival of the economy and the welfare state means politicians now want to welcome international students to Denmark,” she said.

Wright said the new policy was “really a labour market policy” rather than an education policy.

“The report of the Reform Commission and the remit given to the candidate committee to secretly design the reforms is based on an idea that the labour market (let alone the university world) is circumscribed by the borders of Denmark,” she said.

“How will the offer of a 75 ECTS degree that is only recognised in Denmark and does not fit the European Bologna degree framework be an attractive investment for international students?

“How will graduates be persuaded to stay and work in Denmark when testimonies at the time of the cuts showed even those wanting to stay faced difficulties of gaining employment and feeling welcome in Denmark?” she asked.

“On the committee charged in high secrecy with changing the structure of masters education there are eight academic top leaders and representatives of students and industry, but the voices of the academic staff who actually design and teach the courses are missing.

“The educational dimensions of such a major reform are missing. International education is also for Danish students and is not just to equip them to work in Denmark’s increasingly global industries, but also to sustain Denmark’s contributions to humanitarian, development, climate, security and other international arenas,” she explained.

Esben Bjørn Salmonsen, chairperson of the National Union of Students (DSF), one of two student members on the committee, told University World News: “From my point of view, it is two very different questions: whether we can make the one-year masters programme attractive and making the erhvervskandidat (vocational-professional degree) attractive for internationals.

“In addition to that, the new international study places can both be on the classical masters and the new one-year masters – so the attractiveness of the 2,500 is for me not the biggest question – but the attractiveness of the rest.

“I have a hard time seeing how the new professional masters will be attractive to international students. With no student grant at all, and thus no possibility to land in the country, it seems impossible to make professional masters that are attractive for international students and Danish companies. There needs to be a real possibility to match the students with the companies,” said Salmonsen.

Value for students or the labour market?

Horia Onita, president of the European Students’ Union representing 40 million students, said the union was “rather critical” of the push towards the shorter master degrees.

“Based on the understanding of the three-degree cycle structure in the Bologna Process, the masters degree should offer approfundation (a higher order of learning). While it can focus on professional development, it is also essentially research-oriented.

“The move towards shorter master programmes seems to be motivated by the desire to get graduates as fast as possible in the labour market or to upskill them, but fewer years of education may not guarantee that the expected skills and competences can be adequately obtained in one year.

“We need to look at what we want to achieve, what are the intended learning outcomes and whether a programme can coherently cover that in one year, rather than how fast students can graduate,” he said.

Onita told University World News that while 60-75 ECTS programmes are present in other European countries (and form a majority in Spain and Netherlands and close to 50% in Belgium), they are also more common in cases where most of the bachelor programmes have 240 ECTS (Spain or Belgium), while in Denmark the bachelor programmes are split between having either 180 ECTS or 210 ECTS.

“As such, more consideration should be put into assessing whether the reform would actually bring added value for students rather than seeking a quick fix for the labour market,” said Onita.