The Rectorate’s Column
The master’s degree reform will lead to a new educational landscape
The master’s degree reform is a political initiative that will fundamentally impact the overall educational landscape, changing the way we will develop SDU’s education portfolio in the future.
For all the Danish universities, the master’s degree reform entails both restrictions on the possibilities to admit bachelor students and a comprehensive restructuring of the master’s degree programmes.
Together with the rest of the Rectorate, I am participating in the reform work on behalf of SDU, and I would like to share the image of a complex reform that will set new limits for the universities’ space for development. For instance, in the future, each university will have a framework that specifies the number of students that can be admitted to the well-known classic master’s degree programme of 120 ECTS.
Students admitted in addition to this framework must be admitted to new types of master’s degree programmes: a ‘short’ master's degree programme of 75 ECTS and two variants of the master’s degree programme for working professionals of 75 and 120 ECTS, respectively.
With the master’s degree reform, SDU has been given a politically set task. In the near future, we will work to solve this task while at the same time maintaining a high quality and an academically balanced portfolio of education programmes rooted in SDU’s five strong faculties.
Political priorities and growth
In the Executive Board, we have made it a priority to distribute the limited number of 120 ECTS places among the faculties according to a number of principles and with an eye to the political intentions contained in the reform, including a strong political desire to strengthen the STEM area and ensure an increased supply of labour.
The distribution of the limited number of 120 ECTS places to the faculties has not been easy. And the task is further complicated by the fact that our educational areas, especially within Data Science and the engineering programmes, are experiencing strong growth now and in the coming years. This growth is largely driven by an increased demand in the surrounding society, which means that there is a political desire to support it. Data Science requires a master’s degree of 120 ECTS to achieve the necessary deep academic expertise, as the students come from very different educational backgrounds. The master’s programmes in engineering are politically bound to 120 ECTS – and they can only be converted to master’s degree programmes for working professionals of 120 ECTS. We are therefore forced to use a relatively larger number of 120 ECTS places for the master’s programmes in Engineering in order to avoid reducing the intake.
Unfortunately, SDU’s forecasted growth in the coming years with regard to master’s programmes does not mean that we will be allocated a larger framework for 120 ECTS places. Instead, a further prioritisation of the limited number of 120 ECTS places will be necessary. Against this background, the Executive Board has decided that SDU will – relatively speaking – allocate more 120 ECTS places for the Faculty of Science and for the Faculty of Engineering.
Read more about the distribution of master’s degree programme places of 120 ECTS which forms the basis for the faculties’ further work on restructuring the master’s degree programmes on sdunet.dk.
The reform also offers opportunities
Yes, the reform does indeed entail restrictions. But it also offers opportunities. Increased collaboration with businesses and public institutions holds great potential in terms of bridging the gap between the ordinary full-time educational area and learning for people in part-time employment. In this area, we can develop offers of further and continuing education courses in continuation of the new master’s degree programme of 75 ECTS. These are completely new offers that will take time to develop, but we must seize the opportunity. I am convinced that we can contribute to important lifelong learning and development in collaboration with external partners.
The process going forward
Before the end of January 2025, a final decision must be made on what the master’s degree landscape at SDU and the other universities will look like in 2028. This deadline is due to the fact that the prospective students who apply via quota 2 next year (15 March 2025) must know which master’s programme options they will have after their bachelor’s degree. This means that many things will have to be clarified internally at SDU in the coming months. I am aware that this work will not be easy and that there is little time for making the decisions.
In parallel with SDU’s internal process, there will be a co-ordination across the universities via the deans and rectors. SDU is dependent on this co-ordination, and it may lead to changes in SDU’s process and internal prioritisations.
Read more about the master’s degree reform at SDUnet.dk/en/kandidatreform.
