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Begin your Master's courses while completing your Bachelor's degree

As a Bachelor's student from SDU you may apply for permission to follow Master's courses while completing your Bachelor's degree. This could be relevant, e.g. if you are delayed in your Bachelor's degree studies. 

You can apply for the permission if you are enrolled in a full time Bachelor's programme and wish to enroll in a full time Master's programme. 

You faculty will assess your qualifications

You will be granted the permission if your Faculty estimates that you are academically qualified to follow Master's courses while completing your Bachelor's degree.

In addition, you must be able to achieve a place in the Master's programme in accordance with the general admission procedures. 

Please note that you will not be enrolled in the Master's programme before your Bachelor's degree is completed. This means that you: 

  • can follow a maximum of 30 ECTS of Master's level courses - please note that SDU is not allowed to dispense from this limit!
  • can only receive SU in relation to your enrollment in the Bachelor's programme
  • must meet requirements regarding study activity etc. related to your Bachelor's programme

How to apply for permission

# 1 - Check if you have the qualifications

Consult the lists below to see the qualifications which you - as a rule, but not necessarily - should have obtained to be able to follow Master's courses.

See qualifications for Master's programmes within: 
    • You must have passed all the courses from the first and second semester of the programme as well as your Bachelor’s project.
    • No more than 15 ECTS can be left of your programme.
    • You must have passed any propaedeutic language courses included in your programme.

    Special rules for MA in International Business Communication and MSc in Business, Language and Culture (Sønderborg)

    • In these programmes, you are only allowed to have 5 ECTS left of your Bachelor’s programme.
    • No more than 30 ECTS can be left of your Bachelor’s programme.

    NB: The MSc in Pharmacy programme is offered by the Faculty of Health – Please see the listed qualifications under “Faculty of Health”

    • You must have passed at least 150 ECTS of your Bachelor’s programme
    • You must have passed all courses from the 1st through 4th semester*

    *) If you are applying to take courses as part of the MSc in Economics and Business Administration, courses in Corporate Finance and Micro Economics must be passed, no matter where the courses are located in your Bachelor’s programme.

    If you are applying to take courses as part of the MSc in Business Economics and Auditing, courses in Accounting, Corporate Finance and Microeconomics must be passed, no matter where the courses are located in your Bachelor’s programme.

  • Audiology

    You must have passed a minimum of 165 ECTS of your Bachelor’s degree.

    Psychology

    You must have passed the 1st and 2nd year of the Bachelor’s programme as well as B09 from the 3rd year.

    MSc in Sports and Health

    You must have completed at least 150 ECTS in the Bachelor's programme. This must include your Bachelor's thesis.

    MSc in Clinical biomechanics - the chiropractic programme

    • You must have passed the 1st and 2nd year of the Bachelor’s programme as well as the courses “B9” (10 ECTS) and “B11” (2 ECTS)
    • You can only register for Master’s level courses if you are also registered for the Bachelor’s level courses you are lacking.
    • You must have drawn up a plan for your studies in cooperation with the student advisors and attach it to your application.

    MSc in Public Health

    You must have passed the 1st and 2nd year of the Bachelor’s programme along with the 5th semester course “Videregående biostatistik”.

    MSc in Medicine

    •  You must have passed a minimum of 160 ECTS of your Bachelor’s degree
    • You cannot lack any courses with an individual workload of more than 5 ECTS, unless they are courses from the modules B11 or B12 in the 6th semester.

    The Study Board will assess individually any applications from students who do not fulfill the above requirements. In such cases, an individual study plan should be included in the application. The combined workload of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses should not exceed 30 ECTS per semester.

    MSc in Pharmacy

    • You must have passed the 1st and 2nd year of the Bachelor’s programme
    • You cannot have more than 30 ECTS left of the 3rd year of the Bachelor’s programme

    A side from the conditions above, there are courses from the Master’s programme that you can only register for if you have passed certain courses from the Bachelor’s programme.

    Courses from the Master's programme

     Conditions
    Clinical Pharmacology A, B, C   You can only take these courses if you have passed:

    - SU 516/SU 520
    - SU 517
    - SU 518

    And followed the instructions of
    - SU 519
    Drug transport and drug delivery
    		You can only register for this course if you have passed:

    - FA 502/FA 511
    - FA 503
    - FA 504 
    Electives There might be specific conditions for some electives. These conditions will be noted in the course description for the specific course 

  • The Faculty of Engineering makes an individual academic assessment of all applications.

    Please note that as a rule:

    • You must have passed all courses from 1st through 4th semester of your programme in standard time (two years)
    • You may not lack more than 5-10 ECTS of your Bachelor´s degree

    You must attach a plan for your future course of studies. The plan must illustrate when you plan to complete your Bachelor's degree as well as your Master's degree and specify which courses from the Master's you wish to follow before completing your Bachelor's.

    If you are granted permission to follow Master's courses, the following conditions apply:

    • You can register for a maximum of 30 ECTS points per semester – including Master’s courses as well as Bachelor’s courses.
    • You must register for any remaining Bachelor's courses as soon as these are offered (Bachelor's thesis is offered every semester)

If you do not have the listed qualifications, you may still apply for the permission. In this case you must state in your application why you believe you have the academic qualifications necessary for you to complete your Bachelor's programme while taking courses on a Master's level.  

#2 - Apply for admission to the Master's programme

You must apply for admission to the Master's programme in which you wish to follow courses. It is important that you apply within the deadlines listed for admission to SDU's Master's programmes.

Your application will not result in full enrollment in the programme. But if you are granted a place in the programme with the permission to follow Master’ degree courses, you will be fully enrolled as soon as you complete your Bachelor's degree. Please note that this full enrollment will also mean that you have used your legal claim for admission.

#3 - Submit a separate application for permission

You must submit a separate application for the permission to follow Master's level courses without a complete Bachelor's degree. 

You should only submit the application once you know for sure that there are courses in your Bachelor's degree which you will not have passed by September 25 (if your programme commences in September), or February 25 (if your programme commences in February).

You may submit this application as late as September 15 if your programme commences in September - and as late as February 15 for programmes commencing in February.  

#4 - Find the answer in the Application portal

You will receive the decision as an answer to your application for admission. The answer will be available under 'Messages' in the Application Portal. To see the answer, please use the same login method as when you submitted the application. 

Even though you are given permission to register for Master’s level courses, you will still be registered as a Bachelor’s student. That means that you can only use the SU-portions for your Bachelor’s degree. You cannot apply for the SU-portions related to your Master’s degree until you have completed your entire Bachelor’s degree.

The Admissions office handles the initial processing of your application. If you do not meet the academic qualifications to be granted the permission, the Study Board of your programme will be asked to make an individual assessment to determine if it is academically prudent for you to be given a permission.

If you are a student at the Faculty of Engineering, your application will always be sent to the Study Board for individual assessment. 

If you need guidance about the permission, please contact the Admissions Office.

You do not need to take a full 30 ECTS – it is only the maximum amount!

You can spread the 30 ECTS out over several semesters if it will take you more than a semester to complete your Bachelor’s degree. You can also choose to take less than the 30 ECTS before completing the Bachelor's.

Your course registration is binding

It is your choice how many Master's courses you register for, but once you have registered for them you are bound by the registration. That means that your registration can only be cancelled during the semester if unusual circumstances prevent you from continuing.

If you've already registered for Master's courses

Perhaps you have already registered for Master's courses only to find that you will not be completing your Bachelor’s degree in time. If you want to change your course registrations for the Master's, you must contact Registration and Legality through SPOC as soon as possible after you are given the permission to follow Master's coruses.

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take more than 30 ECTS until you have completed your Bachelor’s degree – even if an entire academic year passes before you can complete your degree.

That is why it is very important that you consider how many - and which - Master’s level courses you want to take. It is a good idea to talk to a student counsellor about an individual plan of study.

Once you have completed your Bachelor’s degree, you simply have to contact Registration and Legality to be fully enrolled in the Master’s programme.

So, you do not have to apply for admission to the Master’s programme again.

Admission (Master's programmes) University of Southern Denmark

  • Campusvej 55
  • Odense M - DK-5230
  • Phone: +45 6550 1052

Last Updated 01.02.2024