University of Copenhagen graduates snapping up jobs quickly

Freshly graduated master’s students from the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) have strong prospects of landing a job: It has one of the lowest graduate unemployment rates in Denmark, according to the latest figures. Unemployment among newly qualified master’s graduates from UCPH stands at 5.7 per cent — down from 6.1 per cent the year before.

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Only the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS) have lower unemployment in Denmark, with both Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark having higher unemployment numbers than UCPH.

The numbers are from the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science and have been analysed by the Danish Chamber of Commerce.

According to the Danish Chamber of Commerce’s head of education and research policy, Mads Eriksen Storm, the trend shows that UCPH has made significant progress.

»The University of Copenhagen has started to perform really, really well. Where it previously had challenges in some areas, UCPH is now truly developing into an elite university — also in terms of the labour market,« he says to the University Post.

Graduate unemployment is measured from the fourth to the seventh quarter after graduation. The latest numbers therefore apply to people who completed their degree in 2023.

Social sciences stand out

It is within the social sciences, in particular, that the University of Copenhagen is doing well compared to other universities, according to the survey. Graduate unemployment is just 2.7 per cent in the social sciences — the lowest among all Danish universities.

»That is extraordinarily low unemployment,« says Mads Eriksen Storm.

If you study at UCPH, you also have a very good chance of getting a job afterwards

Mads Eriksen Storm, head of education and research policy at the Danish Chamber of Commerce

He points to two main explanations. First, a politically mandated downsizing of programmes with high unemployment that was a part of the 2023 university reform. This, he says, is now beginning to have an effect on employment rates. Second, geography, where UCPH benefits from its location compared to other Danish universities.

»We have a capital city that is really booming and delivering graduates to a hungry labour market. So you study at a strong university, but you are also located in a very strong labour market. And that means that if you study at UCPH, you also have a very good chance of getting a job afterwards,« he says.

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Graduate unemployment remains significantly higher in the humanities, but here too UCPH is below the national average.

Medicine moving in the wrong direction

One programme at the University of Copenhagen is moving in the opposite direction however, according to Mads Eriksen Storm: Graduates from the medicine programme have a 4.9 per cent unemployment rate.

This is still below the overall UCPH average, but higher than in previous years, when the medical degree traditionally had very low unemployment.

»It is starting to approach the average, and it has never done that before. There has been a lot of talk about the overproduction of doctors. Now we can actually see it in the figures,« says Mads Eriksen Storm.

The geographical advantage in this case has the opposite effect, he points out. The shortage of doctors is significantly greater in outlying regions than in the capital area, he says.

Generally speaking, however, UCPH graduates have strong prospects as they enter the labour market.

This article was first written in Danish and published on 25 February. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.