DENMARK

A leaked parliamentary memo hints at the full extent of the coalition government’s proposed changes in respect of the country’s masters degree programmes – as well as plans to reduce the intake of undergraduate students into bachelor degree programmes by up to 10%.

On 8 June the financial newspaper Børsen published a leaked document from the ongoing negotiations between the coalition government and opposition parties in parliament on the reforms in the higher education degree system which will, if approved, significantly reform masters degree study and reduce the intake of undergraduates.

The government is currently considering a reform model for higher education which will affect 36% of study places at masters level: 16% of places will be allocated to a 15-month degree consisting of 75 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). The remaining 20% of places will be allocated to business masters degrees in which students will work for 25 hours per week and study part time without student financing.

The leaked proposal toys with the idea of educating up to 5,000 masters business students each year.

Currently, only 2% of masters students in Denmark enrol in the masters degree in business, which means that the reform proposal will increase this particular intake 10-fold.

According to Universities Denmark, in 2022 there were a total of 1,537 students registered in business masters degrees, while the total number of masters students was 59,835.

Among the 525 students admitted into business masters degrees for the 2022 academic year, 164 of which were at Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

The CBS numbers reveal large differences in the distribution of business masters students in the main study areas: 0 in the humanities, 0 in the social sciences, 1,198 in the health sciences, 235 in the technological sciences and 34 in the natural sciences. At the University of Copenhagen, the 36 new admitted students are all in the natural sciences and biosciences.

A key idea behind the masters degree reforms is to ensure that more masters degrees are business-relevant across all academic fields.

The leaked proposal suggests that if the goal of 20% enrolment in the business masters degree is not reached, more masters degrees will be shortened in order to achieve the reform goal of 36%.

The memo states that the Danish government has already identified which subject areas will be affected: 35% of masters degree programmes in the humanities are to be shortened; 20% in the social sciences; 10% in the natural sciences; and 7% in the health sciences.

The proposed reformed business degree will be extended to constitute 29% of the masters degrees in the social sciences; 20% in the natural sciences; 15% in the technological sciences and 14% in the humanities.

Academics and students believe the proposals to be extreme.

Brian Bech Nielsen, rector at Aarhus university and the chair of Universities Denmark, said the plan to shorten 36% of masters degrees to 15 months was “not feasible”. On 9 June, Kira Ladegaard Knox, a masters student in educational science at Copenhagen University and deputy chair of the Danish Association of Masters and PhDs – student branch (DM), stated via Twitter that 36% was “extremely high for such an experiment in higher education”.

Kristian Cedervall Lauta, pro-rector for education at the University of Copenhagen, agreed, telling University Post: “The government’s new proposal is still far too intrusive. Even though we hear that they have adjusted the numbers slightly, it is still a very, very big reform that they are proposing. I hope that they will consider adjusting this downwards.

“It saddens me that the government has already made a selection among academic fields. This eliminates all the space for us to be able to find good solutions across the sector. And it gives the impression that politicians do not trust us to implement the agreement in the most appropriate way.”

Lauta said universities were not part of the negotiations. “And if we were, I think it would be difficult to land an agreement that all parties would be satisfied with,” she told University Post. “But right now, the fact is that a political agreement will be achieved within the next month. When it comes, we will, of course, make sure that as much expertise and quality as possible comes out of it, within the framework we are given. It is a responsibility that we, of course, take upon us.”

Chair of the National Union of Students in Denmark (DSF) Esben Bjørn Salmonsen told University World News the government’s proposal was based on a misunderstanding of the ECTS model.

“We have calculated the mean study intensity per week on the new masters reform and compared it with the Danish labour market. Based on the same holiday rules, the weekly work intensity will be 46 hours on the studies compared to 37 hours on the general labour market in Denmark.

“This is due to the fact that the new ‘one-year masters’ will in effect be 75 ECTS instead of 60 ECTS. In the Bologna system 60 ECTS is equivalent to one work year. The government’s proposal is thus based on a simple misunderstanding of the model.

“This will also [put] stress [on] the process of writing the masters thesis. In the masters programmes this will have to be done over the summer period and for only 15 ECTS. This is not a sustainable way to create an academic master.

“We are very afraid how this increased workload will affect the wellbeing of students. The wellbeing of students is not good in Denmark at the moment, and we can’t see how this reform will fix that,” Salmonsen said.

Minister Christina Egelund told the newspaper Berlingske Tidende on 13 June that the government has not decided upon the numbers on the business masters degrees but she feels that she is committed to the task she has been given to “make it more flexible”.

“This is one of the reasons that the government has established a so-called masters degree partnership with the participation of Danish Universities, Danish Industry and Danish Chamber of Commerce”.

Undergraduate numbers

The leaked note also states that the government is working on a proposal to cut the intake of bachelor students into universities by between 5.5% to 10%. No time frame for the proposed cuts is given.

Nielsen told Børsen that he is open to a limit of the intake to the bachelor’s degree but that 10% reduction is the absolute maximum Danish universities can accept.

University World News approached several stakeholders for comments but they indicated they cannot comment as long as the masters issue is under negotiation.