This year, the number of applications to the University of Southern Denmark has risen to 16,685. This suggests that young people are thinking more about their future when choosing where and what to study.
Once again, the University of Southern Denmark has received a record number of applications to its study programmes. This year SDU received 16,685 applications – the highest number ever. Last year it received 14,966.
The number of first-priority applications is also record-high this year: 5,727 applicants listed SDU as the university they would most like to study at. Last year’s figure was 5,384.
Applications to all five of the university’s faculties have increased compared to last year, with applications to the faculties in the Kolding and Slagelse campuses increasing most.
This year’s applications suggest that young people are thinking in terms of their future job opportunities by choosing study programmes aimed at qualifying them for careers in the private sector. For instance, there has been an increase in the number of applicants to all SDU’s engineering programmes – both traditional engineering programmes such as Production Technology and Mechatronics, and newer programmes like Software Engineering and Energy Technology. Similarly, there is growing interest in the humanities programmes that combine economics, language and culture, in particular the programme in International Business Communication.
Rector Jens Oddershede welcomes the sensible choices of this year’s applicants:
“To boost declining productivity in Denmark, we need to get more graduates out in the private sector, and we can see from the number of applicants that the young people are aware of this,” he says.
Popular design programmes
The university’s new study programmes have also got off to a very good start. For example, there have been many applications to the newly established programme in Design Culture in Kolding, as well as the programme in Design Culture and Economics. More than 150 young people have opted for these programmes taught in the East Jutland fjord town.
“It’s gratifying to see that our focus on design in Kolding seems to have borne fruit and that so many young people are interested in taking a design programme with a completely new and vocational profile,” says Jens Oddershede.
In Slagelse, the pile of applications has also grown since last year. The same hasn’t yet happened at the university’s international campus in Sønderborg, but this can still change, since the German applicants – who traditionally make up a significant portion of the students there – do not start applying until August and September.
In addition, it is worth noting that:
- More young people have applied for the common first year of general science studies (students do not choose their specific programme, e.g. Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, until after one year)
- The new English-language profile in Economics and Business Administration at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences has also seen a large number of applicants
- Medicine is still the most applied-for study programme at SDU
22.07.2013
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