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Comment: I´m happy about dimensioning

It is a government plan to cut down on study places with low employment prospects. But it has a positive side effect. It will also reduce confusion about program choice, says economics student in this featured comment

Three years ago, my high school [Danish= gymnasium, Ed.] English teacher asked the class, “What do you want to do once you graduate?”.

About half the class didn’t really know the answer. I myself had been debating it since I was 15 and I didn’t really decide until I had to apply for a university spot. And I didn’t even settle on the right program for me until I had spent half a year on another.

There are so many possible university programs, and choosing the right one for you can be challenging. Many of them also sound similar to one another. What is, for example, the difference between economics and math economics, the difference between studying law and business law or the difference between “International Business” and “International Business and Politics” and what jobs can you expect to be hired for after you finish them?

Overwhelming choice

When you’re fresh out of high school, answering these questions can be very challenging. Do you even have time to consider which programs are the most desirable for employers, and which ones will end in unemployment? Probably not.

That is why I like the government’s resizing model, the so-called ‘dimensioning’ plan.

It reduces the complexities of making a choice about your education and increases the likelihood that I will actually be able to use what I learned doing the five years spent on education.

A lot of people don’t like the dimensioning because they are afraid that they won’t get to study the fields that really interest them. That won’t necessarily happen. First of all, even with reduced places you might still make it in. Secondly, if you end up not getting into the program education you wanted maybe you could ask yourself, could I still study what interests me via another program?

Think of alternative pathways

The answer is most likely yes. I was once told a story about a guy who was really interested in Russia.

However he didn’t study Russian or Russian culture or something else directly related to Russia.

He actually studied political science and simply chose to focus on Russia where possible. As far as I heard he ended up studying as much about Russia (and getting a better job) as he would have done by taking one of the above mentioned programmes!

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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