Admissions cuts at the University of Copenhagen: Which programmes are shrinking the most?

New students at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) will have more space to mix and mingle when they are welcomed at the Matriculation Ceremony in 2025: There will be 474 fewer of them this year compared to last.

The drop in numbers is after the downsizing of specific university sectors that was a part of the 2023 university reform introduced by the Danish governing coalition with its partners the Green Left, Liberal Alliance, the Denmark Democrats, and the Conservative Party.

The reform imposes a fixed cap on bachelor admissions until 2029. In total, approximately one in ten study places will be cut at Danish universities.

After a lot of work, the distribution of where the reductions are to take place at the University of Copenhagen has now been finalised.

The University Post got access to the numbers by way of a freedom of information request.

UCPH has previously announced that admissions would be cut by 450 places, while the Ministry of Higher Education and Science had projected a 789 place reduction.

The discrepancy arises because the ministry’s calculation is based on the average admissions from 2018-2022, while the UCPH numbers were derived from 2023 data. The current 474 reduction number is based on last year’s admissions.

It is UCPH management that has allocated the reductions across its six faculties, while it is the faculty management that has made the decision on specific cuts within individual programmes. UCPH management has then ultimately approved the distribution.

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According to Prorector for Education Kristian C. Lauta, the task of distributing the reductions across the University of Copenhagen has not been easy – but he is satisfied with the final result.

We have talented young people who are eager to study at UCPH, who must be turned away.

Kristian C. Lauta, Prorector for Education, UCPH

»We have tried to maintain the breadth of our education programme portfolio. Other universities have had to close programmes down, but we have avoided that,« says the prorector.

Kristian C. Lauta will not say whether Danish universities have reached a breaking point or not. But he emphasizes that the politically mandated reductions are painful and have consequences.

»We’ve reached a point where we are cutting into the bone. There are programmes where we are now reducing places, even though the labour market is calling for more graduates. And we have talented young people who are eager to study at UCPH, who must be turned away,« says Kristian C. Lauta.

Both the Confederation of Danish Industry and the Danish Chamber of Commerce have warned against the reductions, fearing it will harm Danish economic growth.

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Good collaboration with faculties

In implementing the reductions, the University of Copenhagen has used factors such as unemployment and dropout rates within various programmes as guidelines.

Kristian C. Lauta emphasizes that other factors were also considered however. This is primarily because UCPH adjusts admissions at the bachelor’s level, while unemployment is measured at the master’s level.

»In this way, we’ve considered the [unemployment and dropout, ed.] numbers. But in the end it’s a managerial decision on how we can best make things work,« says Kristian C. Lauta.

The work with reductions has been challenging, but the prorector is proud of the collaboration between management and the faculties.

»We’ve managed to do this in an extremely orderly and sensible way, and I believe it highlights our ability to navigate this system in the future. The fact is that with this sector reform, we’ve had to reduce admissions for 2025, but the cap on how many bachelor students we can admit at the University of Copenhagen continues well into the future. So, we need to refine our ability to discuss how we distribute admissions at the university. And I think this sets us up quite well for that,« says Kristian C. Lauta.