AU EMPLOYEES RAISED CONCERNS BUT HAD TO IMPLEMENT MEASURES THEMSELVES TO RESTRAIN THE BANGLADESHI INFLUX - THIS IS NOW EVIDENT IN THE ADMISSIONS
Degree programmes that have received hundreds of applications from Bangladeshi students welcome the government’s new, tighter rules for applicants from outside the EU. However, they have already taken matters into their own hands, as reflected in this year’s admissions. But the head of department and the director of studies wish their warnings about the influx years ago had been taken more seriously.
Since certain disciplinary groups at Aarhus University noticed a sharp increase in applications from Bangladesh to the university’s Master’s degree programmes, these groups have taken measures themselves to regulate the increase. This is now reflected in the 2025 admissions figures.
Aarhus University has admitted 104 students from Bangladesh in the summer admissions of 2025, 50 fewer than last year. Notably, admissions were based on a higher number of applications than in 2024. For the 2025 admissions, AU received 2,422 applications from Bangladesh, compared with 2,063 in 2024.
Thus, Bangladesh is still the country that, after Danish students, is most represented in Aarhus University’s Master’s degree programmes, but it is now on the same level as German students, where the intake amounts to 103 students.
Business Administration admitted fewer than five Bangladeshi students in 2025
The government has just presented a series of measures aimed at “limiting the abuse of student residence permits in Denmark,” following the intense focus on Bangladeshi and Nepali students at Danish universities. However, the programmes at AU that have been most sought after by students from Bangladesh in recent years have already taken action.
For the Master's degree programmes in Business Administration at Aarhus BSS, which in recent years have been among those receiving the highest number of applications from Bangladesh, programme director Lars Esbjerg does not expect the government’s new measures to have much impact, as they had already taken action themselves a year ago. Because a significant proportion of students from Bangladesh lacked the necessary academic prerequisites to meet the study requirements, a rule was introduced requiring applicants to have completed a bachelor’s project of at least 10 ECTS — something several Bangladeshi candidates do not have.
This has already affected the number of qualified applicants, Lars Esbjerg says. The programmes have gone from 53 admitted students from Bangladesh in 2024 to under five this year. The political response comes too late, he believes.
“It doesn't matter to us. It might have mattered to us if the agency had listened to the inquiries made in 2023. They disregarded it. That ship has sailed. I helped draw attention to it in 2023, when we experienced the influx. I expressed this to the board of studies, and then the university sent an email to the agency (Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, ed. ),” Lars Esbjerg says.
"We saw a problem with academically challenged students, which we tried to address, and we have done so in a sensible way on our own. We could see it was a problem for the students and for the lecturers. We had to act on that. We didn't just let it be, as they seem to have done at Roskilde University,” he says.
Minister of Education and Research Christina Egelund (M) has explained in several consultations that the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science received inquiries from several universities about the increase in applications from Bangladesh. She denies that the agency passed the message on to her department, which she otherwise would’ve liked to happen, she has explained.
According to Lars Esbjerg, the Master's degree programmes in business administration are now at a point where the challenges caused by the large number of students from Bangladesh will disappear.
“These challenges will disappear, as from now on we expect to admit only students who have the prerequisites to complete the programme. We have a group of overseas students who are really struggling to complete their studies. A large number were admitted last year, so they are still studying. We don't know how many will graduate,” he says, pointing out that there are also students from Bangladesh who are doing well in the programmes.
Head of department: “Difficult to frame the explosive increase as a real problem”
While two Master's degree programmes in Business Administration were the third- and fifth-most popular for Bangladeshi students at AU in 2024, the highest number of applications went to English and Intercultural Studies in the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts. Here, Peter Mortensen is head of department, and like Lars Esbjerg, he has previously raised the alarm about the development, also in Omnibus back in January this year.
“It took some time, but I think it's good that something is happening and that there is now attention on it. The development was clearly unsustainable. Some of us who have been handling the applications from the start could see that something quite bizarre was going on. I don't want to criticise the management, but it was a bit difficult for us to get the explosive increase framed as a real issue. Perhaps because the increase was so concentrated in relatively few degree programmes. But we have taken action ourselves,” Peter Mortensen says.
The Department of English has introduced a requirement for a longer written assignment and now also requires students to have at least 5 ECTS in philosophy of science or scientific methodology.
“We have voluntarily tightened the admission requirements. It's already made a big difference. We are catching far more non-qualified applicants in the screening process now,” Peter Mortensen says.
The requirements were introduced in Intercultural Studies in 2024 and in English in 2025. They therefore appear only in this year's entry on Intercultural Studies. Here, only one student from Bangladesh has been admitted in 2025 among 35 students from 17 different countries.
“There were an incredible number of applicants, but the stricter requirements meant that the study places went to other students. We ended up with a much more diverse group of students in that programme, and that makes good academic sense. I expect it will have the same impact on English, but now we are somewhat overtaken by the ministry’s new rules,” he says.
Positive about the ministry's new measures
Peter Mortensen welcomes the announced measures by the Ministry. He expects it will lead to fewer applications, especially because it will become less attractive to apply to Danish universities. He also notes that the new rules will tighten quality control during the application process.
“I have asked for that. At times, it has been difficult to figure out which documents we have received and what their quality is. There has been concern that some applicants are applying under false pretences. "I understand that this will be looked into, and that will be really useful,” Peter Mortensen says.
He calls for a tighter, more realistic approach to the documents the university receives. Many of the students from Bangladesh apply with 10-to 20-year-old bachelor's certificates, he says. They can be difficult to figure out.
If Peter Mortensen were to make another suggestion, it is that universities should be allowed to consider the applicant's university in the assessment. Currently, AU especially awards points based on the average grade, without considering which university the applicants come from and how those universities are ranked in international rankings.
“That system works fine enough as long as you recruit from a relatively homogeneous area, for example, from countries like the United States, Canada and Australia. But it is not geared to the fact that applicants are now increasingly coming from very different places. And at AU, we ourselves pay quite a bit of attention to our position in these rankings, so it could be a useful tool,” he says.
AU Admissions: “It's not unwillingness, but it just takes time”
Frederik Langkjær, Division Manager at AU Student Administration and Services - Quality, Educational Law and Admissions, says that AU Admissions helped draw the agency's attention to the explosive increase from Bangladesh that began in 2023. They asked if there was anything to pay attention to in this regard. According to Frederik Langkjær, the agency initially responded that there was not.
To the question of whether AU Admissions could have been more direct about the challenges that arose, Frederik Langkjær replies:
"I think we at AU have a fine tradition of following the instructions we receive from our supervisory authorities and then seeking dialogue about what may be challenging. I think we have tried the tools we have access to. But many actors need to be influenced. There is underlying legislation that must be complied with and the like. It is not a lack of will, but it takes longer. In retrospect, we could perhaps have been more precise about which admissions technical issues became apparent in connection with a large increase in applicant numbers,” Frederik Langkjær says.
When Omnibus first reported on the challenges with Bangladeshi applications and students in January this year, Frederik Langkjær explained that AU Student Administration and Services is generally pleased “that many applicants choose to apply to Aarhus University”. Changes and developments in applicant patterns are generally something the AU must be prepared for in a globalised world, the division manager said. AU Student Administration and Services wanted to clarify its communication about “what is required to gain admission to the individual programmes,” but this was not specifically aimed at “attracting more or fewer international applicants,” he explained.
When he looks back on it, he takes a more nuanced view, he says.
"I would like to emphasise that, in principle, I think it is positive that many apply to Aarhus University, but of course they should do so for the right reasons and with the proper qualifications,” he says.
Calls for the use of rankings and a distinction between EU and non-EU applicants
Frederik Langkjær is also positive about the new initiatives from the ministry. Some of the tools will help AU assess the applicant's qualifications. As it stands, there is a lack of tools, he explains. For example, universities have an assessment database where they can look up programmes and institutions and see how they correspond in a Danish context. However, according to the head of the function, this tool doesn’t always match the experience of the disciplinary groups, even though the vast majority of applicants come from programmes that, in the database, correspond to their Danish equivalents.
At the same time, AU has, over the years, put forward a number of proposals to the agency, which so far haven't been implemented or included in the new measures. One is, as Peter Mortensen also mentions, that Danish universities are allowed to use the so-called rankings of international universities. The second proposal is that AU believes it should be possible to separate the application process for EU and non-EU applicants. This is where the Equal Treatment Act can come into play.
"Right now, if we adjust the admission requirements for a given programme, it applies to all applicant groups. Since education systems vary globally, it would make sense to have different admission criteria to work with. That would make it easier for everyone, I think,” Frederik Langkjær says.
Associate professor: “Extremely generalising rhetoric”
The debate about students from Bangladesh has been extensive in recent months, during which Christina Egelund has been summoned to several consultations on the matter.
Recently, the rector of the University of Southern Denmark, Jens Ringsmose, told Politiken that he acknowledges the criticism regarding the sharp rise in admissions of students from Bangladesh and Nepal. The University of Southern Denmark has now decided to put admission of non-EU students on hold for the winter admissions. The University of Southern Denmark has admitted the highest number of students from Bangladesh.
Recently, the Director of Universities Denmark, Jesper Langergaard, admitted that they should have spoken out more about the large increase in applications from Bangladesh, but that Roskilde University has been subjected to “harsh and at times unserious criticism.
The case has also reached the Bangladeshi Embassy in Copenhagen. In a press release from 30 September under the headline “Bangladeshi Students in Denmark: Victims of Exploitation, Not Abusers of the System,” the embassy writes that reports suggesting students use student residence in Denmark as a route to the labour market are generalising, misleading, and unfair to the many genuine students.
Karen Valentin agrees with this point. She is an associate professor of Educational Anthropology at the Danish School of Education and has been researching education-related migration in Nepal since the late 00s. In 2010-2015, she ran a research project on Nepalese educational migration to Denmark. This is the context in which she is speaking.
Karen Valentin believes that Bangladeshi students are being generalised in the ongoing debate, in which, according to her, there is a tendency to assume motives. The similarities between the current debate and the debate about Nepalese students in the 2000s and throughout the 2010s are striking, she explains. For example, a number of media outlets reported in 2008 on the many Nepalese who came to Denmark on student permits but instead worked. According to Karen Valentin, however, the case is more nuanced.
“You may well ask how much it is realistic to study and work at the same time, but after all, they have to finance their stay, and many of the Nepalese I have interviewed have come with the intention of obtaining a valuable diploma, which they can use to work here or in other countries. They also have the idea that if opportunities arise here, they would like to stay. And there is nothing criminal about that. There is a suspicion that if they are considering settling here, they have ulterior motives. But if my son goes to the US to study, it’s quite possible he would want to stay there as well,” Karen Valentin says.
Unlike the critics of Roskilde University, where one in six Master’s degree students is from Bangladesh, she believes that it is not Roskilde University that has been conducting immigration policy, but that politicians from, for example, the Danish People’s Party and Liberal Alliance are now implementing immigration policy through the universities. She is speaking out in the debate due to the generalisations, she explains.
“I am responding to that extremely generalizing rhetoric in relation to nationalities. The online newspaper Pio described it as the Bangladesh manoeuvre. Politically, it is linked to the fact that Bangladesh is a Muslim country. Yes, but why is that relevant in this context if one doesn’t have another agenda?” Karen Valentin says.
Karen Valentin acknowledges that universities have a responsibility to maintain a high academic level, and she also believes it isn’t desirable to have a majority of students from a single country.
She can see the point of language requirements and other proposed measures that help universities assess students’ academic competencies, but she believes the measure preventing students from bringing their spouses and children is off the mark.
"I don’t think there’s any basis for that.
Again, the focus is on their motives. They are in their twenties and have a partner. And there is nothing criminal about that. And that they can help fill gaps in the labour market, I simply cannot see the argument against,” says Karen Valentin.
Still many students from Bangladesh at AU
At the Department of English, Peter Mortensen is aware that there are still many students from Bangladesh at the university who have to finish their programmes.
“Of course, we must take good care of the students who are still here and whom we have legally admitted. We must avoid unjustly suspecting them. We help our students as best we can. The dropout rate has been relatively high. But there are also really talented students among them, and you have to keep that in mind.”
He is also conscious that the new requirements could have an impact on students from other non-European universities.
“It should not lead to our programmes becoming provincial. In the English-language programmes, we want to be able to continue admitting students from all over the world. I recognise that tightening the rules could have both positive and negative consequences. Because it could potentially deter other non-EU students — including those from Bangladesh — who could be a real asset for our programmes,” Peter Mortensen says.
Regarding the requirement for a bachelor's project, Lars Esbjerg at Aarhus BSS is aware that it can also affect students from, for example, European universities.
“It has probably also meant that we have had to say no to some European applicants, because they, too, did not have a bachelor’s project of 10+ ECTS. It's an indirect consequence that we were aware of. But it was the right decision to say no to the students who do not have the academic prerequisites to study here. This was clarified with the head of the department and the dean, who agreed that we should do it,” says Lars Esbjerg.
This text was machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen