Universitetsavisen
Nørregade 10
1165 København K
Tlf: 35 32 28 98 (mon-thurs)
E-mail: uni-avis@adm.ku.dk
—
People
Farewell portrait — The battle over the Danish reform of master's degree programmes was the key test, says the departing chair of the National Union of Danish Students. He believes that the future landscape of Danish master's programmes would have looked significantly different without them.
Esben Bjørn Salmonsen shakes his head slightly in resignation and looks around the room at the university rectors.
Esben Bjørn Salmonsen
He is 24 years old and studies Political Science at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), where he started in 2019.
He has been active in the Student Council at UCPH, where he eventually became chairperson before taking over as chairperson of the National Union of Danish Students (DSF) in 2023.
During his time at DSF, he took a leave of absence from his studies but is now returning to write his bachelor’s thesis in political science. He plans to write about the Danish master’s degree reforms.
The new chairperson of DSF is Christoffer Rosenkvist, an architecture student at the Royal Danish Academy.
Sitting across from him are senior officials at the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. They are explaining to him that a political ambition to turn 20 per cent of future master’s programmes into vocational business-oriented programmes cannot be altered.
This in spite of the fact that a committee consisting of those same university rectors, and the National Union of Danish Students (DSF) — themselves tasked by the government to evaluate the Danish master’s reform — had just emphasized that it is only realistic to convert seven per cent of them.
READ ALSO: Key committee says reform to Danish master’s degrees is »extremely difficult«
He had to protest against what he now calls the ministry’s »spreadsheet exercise«.
»Lauge (Lunding Bach, DSF’s deputy chairperson, ed.) and I put our foot down and emphasized that this simply can’t be right. The rectors didn’t believe in it either: But we were the ones who made it clear to the ministry,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
For Esben Bjørn Salmonsen, the memory of that moment remains vivid. It was a turning point which, according to him, ultimately led to changes to a much-criticized reform of Danish master’s degree programmes.
A reform that has taken up most of his time as chairperson of DSF. He stood down as chairperson on 1 February after two years.
»In many ways, my entire tenure was shaped by a single pressing issue. About a month before I became chair, a new government platform was introduced, outlining plans to shorten up to half of all master’s programmes and make significant cuts to the SU student grant,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen, referring to the generous Danish student grant system.
My ambition has been to make it as difficult as possible for the government to implement its plans.
That is why most of his hours at the DSF offices in the central Copenhagen Rådhuspladsen have, in one way or another, also been spent working against the current Danish coalition government, known as the SVM coalition.
»My ambition has been to make it as difficult as possible for the government to implement its plans. In that way, the fight for better conditions for future students has been a very concrete part of my entire tenure as chairperson,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
With that in mind, do you consider your time as chairperson a success?
»Yes, I actually do. Like many others, I have made an effort that has had a tangible impact. If you look back in ten years at DSF’s work in the early part of this decade, I think the narrative will be that we lost a lot of battles. The Social Democrats were allowed to cut our master’s programmes, and there was a universities relocation plan that did not take into account the fundamental way universities operate their programmes. But I believe — and hope — that during these years, we have managed to lay the groundwork for stopping this trend,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
According to the now former chairperson, DSF has played a central role in creating broad consensus within the education sector that cuts are not the solution.
»I believe we have set an agenda that universities, academic unions, industry organisations, and employers all largely support — namely, that education cuts are very bad pathways to go down. And DSF has had a significant role in that,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
The government’s ambition with the controversial reform is to encourage more young people to choose vocational education or professional bachelor’s degrees instead of going for academic careers.
A study by the Economic Council of the Labour Movement suggests that Denmark will face a shortage of 99,000 skilled workers by 2030, which could lead to higher unemployment and harm businesses and economic growth.
Isn’t it a good idea to strengthen other parts of the education system beyond universities?
»I fundamentally agree that the government should prioritise funding for vocational education. But I simply don’t understand the premise that this must also involve cuts to university education. I think that premise is really dangerous for the entire education system. Right now, we need more skilled workers, so we allocate funds there. But in ten years time, we may find ourselves short of engineers — so then the money should flow the other way. That’s why I think it’s crucial to take a broader perspective on these things,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
With the university reform, the government aims to challenge the perception of young people in university and vocational-oriented education programmes as being divided into an A-team and a B-team. Isn’t there some merit in shifting that mindset and creating more balance between different education pathways?
»Yes, and I believe much should be done to address the prestige hierarchies that far too many young people experience and are restricted by. I just don’t think the university reform will significantly change this by cutting a year from master’s programmes. With this reform, many university degrees will be about the same length as teacher training programmes. And then the question becomes: Would you rather train to be a schoolteacher in four years? Or earn a university master’s degree in four years? The prevailing mindset is that a master’s degree sits at the top of the hierarchy — so if they have the same duration, even fewer people will choose teacher training,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
»Instead, the government should have approached it from the other direction and asked how vocational and professional education could be made more attractive,« he says.
No one really wants, or sees the point of the enrolment cap. It only makes sense within the Ministry of Finance
Along with the reform to master’s degrees, has also come an enrolment cap, which means that Denmark’s eight universities must admit 2,654 fewer bachelor’s students each year until 2029 compared to the 2018–2022 intake. At the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), this translates to a reduction of 789 student places compared to the 2018–2022 levels.
READ ALSO: University of Copenhagen to slash admissions numbers by 789 places annually
This particular aspect of the university reform is something Esben Bjørn Salmonsen is especially critical of.
»No one really wants, or sees the point of the enrolment cap. It only makes sense within the Ministry of Finance, because it allows them to set an upper limit on how many students they are actually willing to fund. This makes for better budget security for the Ministry of Finance. But at the same time, it means that we have to quash the dreams of many more young people,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
According to the departing chairperson, the intense focus on the university reforms has meant that other issues have had to take a backseat. For example, he would have liked to do more to present what he calls a realistic picture of student life to the public.
»I think many Danes nowadays have the idea that students live these incredibly privileged lives and could get by with a lot less money. And I think we haven’t been good at telling the real stories about students’ daily lives—about how crucial the [Danish student grant] SU is for paying rent, and how difficult it is to find affordable housing in Copenhagen,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen, continuing:
»The political manoeuvring around reforms — such as the university reforms in my case — can easily consume all your attention. And perhaps it has to an excessive degree, because it offers the option of concrete changes in the short term. But this can come at the expense of long-term strategic efforts to improve overall conditions for students. And perhaps we haven’t always been the good at finding that balance,« he says.
Esben Bjørn Salmonsen remains optimistic, nevertheless, about the future of the 93-year-old organisation, which he is confident will remain relevant.
»Some people see student politics as a battlefield for competing directions. But I fundamentally believe that as students we share more interests in common, than things that divide us. That’s why we gain more influence when we speak with a united voice. That core idea, I believe, ensures that DSF will continue to wield influence and remain an unavoidable force in the education sector,« he says.
Looking back at the confrontation with ministry officials, Esben Bjørn Salmonsen believes that the defiant stance he and Lauge Lunding Bach took that day illustrates how DSF has helped shape the university reform into something different from its original form.
The master's reform would have looked completely different if it hadn't been for DSF
Going forward, 20 percent of master’s students are to be enrolled on a business-oriented master’s programme, while 10 percent will be enrolled on the shorter master’s track.
Additionally, a supplementary agreement has ensured greater flexibility and more lenient financial conditions, allowing for different models for business-oriented master’s programmes.
»We have pushed the government to its limits, and I am quite convinced that without DSF, the university reform would have looked completely different,« says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen.
Both the government and opposition politicians have recently stated that the reports from the master’s reform committee played a key role in shaping the final agreement.
For this reason, he is also pleased that DSF chose to participate in it when they were invited.
»There was certainly a debate within DSF about whether we should join, given that it was essentially an exercise in legitimising something we fundamentally oppose. But I am certain that it was the right decision, precisely because we have had significant and concrete influence on the final outcome.«