Denmark Higher Education News

Posted on 12 May 2014 Views ( 2369 )

A new OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) report praises the high quality of Danish post-secondary vocational education. The report highlights the dynamic relationship between labor market needs and education, aided by mandatory internships. It also emphasizes the close cooperation between employer’s organizations, Danish trade unions, educational institutions, and companies.

OECD provides a number of recommendations for the further development of Danish post-secondary vocational education. The organization counts Academies and Professional Higher Education (2-3 year AP degrees) and University Colleges (3-4 year professional bachelor's degrees).

According to the reports of the surveys conducted by QS World University Ranking, in which it evaluates more than 700 from 2,000 universities The University of Copenhagen climbed six places from last year’s 51st place to the 45th. This makes University of Copenhagen, the highest ranking university in Scandinavia. Comparing to this, the highest-ranking universities in Norway, Finland, and Sweden, Finland are placed 89th, 69th, and 67th respectively.

Cambridge, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) top the list.

Denmark's new government has set new goals with an aim to increase access to university education but how it fulfills its election pledge to end DKK1 billion (US$180 million) underfunding to higher education has yet to be outlined.

Established after two weeks of negotiations, the new Danish coalition government, labeled the 'S-R-SF' government after the initials of the Socialist People’s Party, the Social Liberal Party, and Social Democratic Party is expected to offer more state support for higher education and take a less xenophobic approach towards foreign students.

The parties worked out A United Denmark, a 76-page government foundation document.

The document includes the below: 

  • Creation of 10,000 new student places by 2020
  • 60% taking higher education of three years duration
  • 25% of young people taking a longer higher education
  • Greater autonomy for universities; better quality in research
  • Increased Internationalization
  • Strengthening of professional colleges (Physiotherapy, teacher training, and so on)

Today Denmark is the youngest and probably best educated government in Europe with the 23-minister cabinet, including nine women. The nation educates many including the Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt who pursued his Master’s from the Europe College in Bruges, Belgium and Morten Østergaard the new minister for higher education, innovation, and for research did his masters in political science from Aarhus University.