Not just at AU: Students from Bangladesh flock to Danish universities
Within the past two years, the University of Southern Denmark and Roskilde University have admitted significantly more students from Bangladesh, similar to what has been seen at Aarhus University. Other Danish universities have also seen an increase in the number of admissions and applications from students with Bangladeshi nationality.
Disclaimer: This text was translated using machine translation / AI and post-edited by Maria Nielsen Pedersen
It’s not just Aarhus University that has suddenly seen a significant influx of Bangladeshi students in recent years. Since 2022, the majority of other Danish universities have also experienced a significant increase in interest in their degree programmes from students with Bangladeshi backgrounds.
This is evident from a review of applications received or admissions of international students to Master’s degree programmes at six other Danish universities.
Omnibus has previously described how the number of applications to international Master’s degree programmes at Aarhus University from Bangladeshi students has exploded.
The university's admissions unit has had to gear up to handle the thousands of applications, while head of the Department of English has reported that the department "is already under a lot of strain due to the large number of applicants" and will struggle to handle a major increase in the coming years. A director of studies for the business administration programme at Aarhus BSS, one of the places at AU that receives the most applications from Bangladesh, reports academic challenges among Bangladeshi students.
SDU and RUC admit the most Bangladeshi students
The review shows that the increasing interest in Danish Master’s degree programmes among Bangladeshi students is most pronounced at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). The university has seen a growing share of Master's degree students with Bangladeshi nationality, from 38 admitted students in the 2020 cohort to 244 in the 2024 cohort. Since 2020, SDU has admitted a total of 574 students with Bangladeshi passports to a Master's degree programme. This is surpassed only by German and Danish students. The trend is also evident at Roskilde University (RUC). In the autumn of 2020, RUC admitted fewer than four Bangladeshi students, but by the autumn of 2024, students with Bangladeshi nationality had become the largest group of international students at RUC, with 194 admissions. Number two on RUC's list from 2024 are 40 admitted students with Italian nationality.
Below is a brief overview of the numbers from individual universities in Denmark. Aalborg University is the only one missing, as it did not provide the numbers before the deadline for this article. All universities have reported the number of master's students with Bangladeshi nationality. Nationality does not indicate how long the person has been in Denmark.
University of Southern Denmark
SDU, which in terms of number of students is half the size of AU, is, as previously mentioned, the university that has admitted the most Bangladeshi students. The most significant increase in numbers occurred from 2022 to 2023 when admissions surged from 70 to 169, making Bangladeshi students the second largest group of international students at SDU after German students. In 2024, Bangladesh became number one on that list as SDU admitted 244 Bangladeshi students compared to 194 German students.
Roskilde University
RUC, with a total of just under 7,000 students, admitted significantly more Bangladeshi students than AU in the most recent admissions round in 2024. In 2024, RUC welcomed 194 students with Bangladeshi nationality. Admissions notably increased in 2022 and 2023, with the university admitting 34 and 97 students, respectively. Since 2022, Bangladesh has been the country from which RUC has admitted the most students, aside from Denmark.
University of Copenhagen
UCPH receives the most international students from China, but in recent years, the university has also become popular among students from Bangladesh. In 2022, UCPH admitted ten students with Bangladeshi nationality, which increased to 36 in 2023 and 62 in 2024. The 2024 admissions round was only surpassed by students from China, which totalled 175.
The application numbers for UCPH's Master’s degree programmes also paint a clear picture. In 2022, the university received 130 applications from Bangladeshi students, compared to 1,123 applications from Chinese students. By 2024, the numbers had surged to 954 applications from students in Bangladesh and 1,740 applications from students in China.
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
DTU has experienced the same trend as other universities, but the curve changed last year. From 2019 to 2022, the university admitted less than ten students from Bangladesh each year, but in 2023, admissions increased to 65. In 2024, the number of admitted Bangladeshi students dropped significantly to 20.
Copenhagen Business School
CBS does not admit many students from Bangladesh but has experienced growing interest, which is evident in the number of applications to the university's Master's degree programmes. While CBS has admitted fewer than five Bangladeshi students each year, the number of applications from students in Bangladesh has increased from eight in 2018 to 84 in 2024. The increase is especially noticeable from 2023, when CBS received 51 applications from Bangladesh compared to 12 the previous year.
IT University of Copenhagen
One of Denmark’s smaller universities, ITU, has experienced interest from Bangladesh on a smaller scale. Until 2024, admitted Bangladeshi students did not appear on the university's top ten lists, which usually end at six admissions. However, in 2024, ITU admitted exactly six Bangladeshi students, making them the seventh largest group of international students in the 2024 cohort.