University of Copenhagen applications down by ten per cent

Your median new student at the University of Copenhagen is a 22.8 year-old woman studying at either the Faculty of Health Sciences or the Faculty of Humanities. She will be among the just over 7,000 people who got news of their admission to the University of Copenhagen.

The trend this year, however, is a decrease in the number of applicants, and 491 fewer new students have been admitted compared to last year. But the drop in applicants is across all higher education institutions, and it does not surprise the Prorector for Education Kristian Cedervall Lauta:

»We had been expecting a small drop after the previous two years, so I’m not concerned or surprised about the admissions numbers.«

The share of new students who have been admitted on their first priority choice has increased to 81 per cent, slightly higher than last year. Kristian Cedervall Lauta is happy with this trend:

»I’m delighted that we’re able to offer so many applicants admission on their first priority choice this year. We know that it means a lot to the applicants that we can offer them a place on the degree programme of their hopes.«

Natural drop in numbers

Kristian Cedervall Lauta says that the drop in applications is due to both smaller youth cohorts and the aftermath of the corona epidemic:

»I think corona is the most important reason because the option to have a good transition between secondary school and a higher education degree programme completely disappeared during the pandemic. You couldn’t travel abroad, and it was hard to get a job.«

He does not fear that the drop in applications will be an increasing problem next year:

»I think that the number of applicants will stabilise. This is my analysis.«

Year of ‘22

This year, 7,161 new students will be welcomed to the University of Copenhagen. This is a six per cent drop over last year.

The degree programme that requires the highest Danish grade average is yet again the psychology degree programme with an admission requirement of 11.0.

On 26 August, the University of Copenhagen invites all new students to the traditional matriculation ceremony before the start of the semester.