Minister Listens to the Universities and Introduces New Measures to Tighten the Admissions Process for Applicants From Non-Eu Countries

Minister for Higher Education and Science, Christina Egelund (M), has listened to the universities and is now responding with a number of new initiatives aimed at giving universities better tools to tighten the admission of applicants from non-EU countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal.

The initiatives are based on recommendations from a task force led by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science and consist of representatives from all of Denmark’s universities, which was established by the ministry in September.

This comes in the wake of the minister presenting a number of initiatives back in September aimed at limiting abuse of the student residence rules. This is due to the significant increase in applicants from non-EU countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal to Master's degree programmes at Danish universities. It turned out that several applicants from non-EU countries had been admitted to Master's degree programmes without having the necessary qualifications, while there were also signs that some were using their studies as a way into the Danish labour market.

OVERVIEW: How the Government Plans to Restrain the Misuse of Student Residence Rules

POSSIBILITY OF TESTING IF THERE IS DOUBT ABOUT THE APPLICANTS' ACADEMIC LEVEL

The task force – in which AU is represented by university director Kristian Thorn – has six specific recommendations, all of which, according to Christina Egelund, will be implemented. The framework for admission requirements must be strengthened, including the possibility of using tests if there is doubt about the academic level of applicants. There must be a separate admission process for international self-paying students, so that it is possible to provide earlier responses and set ranking criteria for international self-paying students. The task force also recommends a system of step-by-step assessment and ranking of qualified applicants, so that universities can pre-sort qualified applicants and focus their assessment work on those applicants who are close to the admission threshold.

A gross catalogue with pre-approved ranking criteria for ranking eligible applicants is recommended, as well as a process for clarifying additional criteria. In addition, the task force recommends the possibility of ongoing admission commitments for particularly qualified applicants. The final recommendation is to follow up on the impact of the measures and the need for further action. 

“The task force assesses that, overall, the recommendations will significantly strengthen the framework for Master's degree programme admissions at universities and will provide universities with several new tools to address the challenges they face in ensuring that the most qualified students with the right academic qualifications are admitted to Master's degree programmes. The task force also assesses that there is a need to monitor the area closely in the coming years to assess whether further efforts are needed and can be developed, including in relation to assessing qualifying programmes across countries and institutions," the task force writes in its report, which was published on 19 December. 

Both the ministry and the task force point out that the tightening of the framework for Master’s degree admissions must be seen in conjunction with the other initiatives announced by the government in this area. 

Christina Egelund said in connection with the announcement of the new initiatives:

"The tools now available to universities are based on their own ideas about what will improve admissions. With these, they will now be better able to ensure that only the most talented and qualified students are admitted. It’s important that there continue to be good opportunities to attract international students. Overall, they are an asset to Denmark and contribute new ideas and perspectives," Christina Egelund says.

UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 

In the report, the task force points out that consideration should also be given to whether it should be possible to apply other cross-cutting considerations in the admission of candidates than the applicant's individual qualifications. Cross-cutting considerations may include, for example, university rankings, learning environment and diversity in the composition of the student body.

When Omnibus spoke to a director of studies and a head of department at the university in October, who had seen the many applications from Bangladesh, this topic was brought up.

AU Employees Raised Concerns But Had to Implement Measures Themselves to Restrain the Bangladeshi Influx - This Is Now Evident in the Admissions

Peter Mortensen, head of department at the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts, recommended that universities could take the applicant's university into account in their assessment. At present, no consideration is given to which university applicants come from or how these 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,” Peter Mortensen said.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen.