The Rectorate’s Column
Intake 2026: More applications and greater academic ambitions
The final figures for this year’s summer intake will be announced on 1 October at the earliest. At the time of writing (16 March), all we have are indications and forecasts. That said, however, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the 2026 intake. The preliminary figures clearly indicate that there is growing interest in SDU’s degree programmes.
After the application deadline had expired on 1 March, we noted a significant drop in applications for our master’s programmes compared with 2025 (down 23 per cent). This is solely due to a decline in applications from applicants outside the EU/EEA. Usually, however, only a very small proportion of these applicants are actually admitted. On the positive side, there was a 3 per cent increase in the number of Danish applicants and a 15 per cent increase in the number of non-Danish EU citizens applying for our master’s programmes.
At the same time, the number of applications for our bachelor’s degree programmes via quota 2 has moved in the right direction again this year. Compared with 2025, the total number of applications has increased by 11 per cent and the number of first-priority applications by five per cent. And although there are significant variations across faculties and campuses, this is a very encouraging trend overall.
My primary reason for being pleased with the figures is that a large number of applicants increases the likelihood that SDU will be able to admit and educate talented and highly competent students. In line with SDU’s strategy – ‘SDU towards 2030’ – we are working to ‘retain, develop and recruit talented people and create outstanding environments’ also in our education activities.
Three new initiatives
To ensure that the large number of applications received by SDU each year will continue to result in the admission of talented students with great potential, we will be launching three initiatives this year. These initiatives will, in various ways, help make SDU’s student population even stronger in the coming years.
Firstly, we have made some minor adjustments to the capacity of several programmes. For most degree programmes, the main focus is on adjusting their capacity to the actual intake figures (based on the experiences from recent years), but we have also reduced capacity on programmes to which a large number of students with very low grade point averages from their qualifying examinations have been admitted in recent years.
Secondly, we have increased the minimum pass score in the so-called uniTEST, which SDU uses in connection with quota 2 admissions. The minimum pass score has previously been 37 points – this year we have raised it to 45 points. This decision is based on a similar effort to ensure that the students we admit actually possess the skills required to complete a long-cycle higher education programme.
Finally – and thirdly – from 2026, we will introduce five so-called signature programmes (you can read more about the signature programmes elsewhere in this newsletter). The aim of the signature programmes is twofold: On the one hand, we wish to experiment with new types of education programme and new teaching formats; on the other hand, we aim to admit fewer, but academically stronger, students to the five degree programmes.
What do these measures mean for SDU’s future intake and degree programmes?
‘But,’ some people might object, ‘doesn’t that mean that SDU risks receiving less student FTE revenue?’ Yes it does. Not dramatically, but we may well see a slight decline in our education revenue over the coming years.
‘But in that case, does it make sense to have stricter admission requirements for SDU’s degree programmes?’ Yes it does.
Firstly, SDU does not admit students in order to secure student FTE revenue for the University. We admit students because we believe they possess the skills necessary to successfully complete a long-cycle higher education programme ‘to the highest international level’. And there is – perhaps not surprisingly – a clear correlation between the grade point average achieved in the qualifying examination and the likelihood of actually completing the degree programme on which one is enrolled. I therefore firmly expect that, in the long term, this initiative will lead to lower drop-out rates on SDU’s degree programmes.
Secondly, smaller classes with academically stronger students will provide better opportunities to design and organise teaching in which students feel part of an engaging academic community; teaching in which they are challenged and receive more guidance from their lecturers. At the same time, more lecturers will find themselves teaching classes of students who are capable of working at a high academic level and – perhaps – of gaining closer access to the research environments.
Thirdly – and by no means least significantly – I am convinced that, in the long run, it will serve SDU best to be known as a university that admits and educates highly talented students. The opposite – that SDU has a reputation for being the place to which anyone, regardless of their academic abilities, can be admitted – is, in my view, something of a nightmare scenario. In that sense, enhancing the academic skills of the student population will also contribute to securing SDU’s future.
In terms of the number of students, SDU will not become the largest Danish university in this century. And that is perfectly fine. However, it is crucial that prospective applicants know that if they are admitted on a degree programme at SDU, they will be studying with other talented students. This is the only way for SDU to ensure that the number of applicants to SDU’s degree programmes will continue to grow in the long term.
