DPU under strain from new reform

The reform of professionally and vocationally oriented higher education programmes has been eagerly awaited at the Faculty of Arts, and particularly at the School of Education (DPU), even though the reform is aimed at university colleges.

"The proposed reform of the university college sector creates a particular uncertainty at DPU, as it is expected to introduce programme-specific student quotas, the scale of which we still don't know," states the faculty's overall plan from March.

At the end of March, the government, along with the coalition parties, unveiled the agreement behind the reform, which, according to the parties, is intended to raise the quality of professionally and vocationally oriented education and encourage more people to choose these programmes. However, concerns about a potential student quota system can be put to rest for now, as there is no mention of such a system in the agreement text, and Claus Holm, the head of DPU, has not heard about it through any other channels.

Increased Competition

Just like with the Master's degree reform, politicians will also shorten several programmes with this reform, but only by three months, equivalent to 15 ECTS credits. However, what could raise concerns at DPU is that the reform opens up the possibility for university colleges to offer professional Master's programmes of 75 ECTS credits, which would specifically target the same group of professional bachelor’s graduates that many of DPU's Master's programmes also cater to—such as educators and teachers. According to the agreement text, 300 places will be available on these professional Master’s programmes in 2026, rising to 650 by 2028, spread across four to six programmes.

The reform is not exactly something that has grown in the institute's backyard, says the head of the institute, Claus Holm. However, he acknowledges the political intention to ensure a focused quality boost for the educational sector and for university colleges.

The reform could increase competition between university colleges on the one hand and DPU on the other, he assesses.

"But this is true for the entire education system, as there will be more competition for young people. There will be fewer of them, which will sharpen the competition between educational institutions as a whole," he says.

For Claus Holm, it will be essential to maintain cooperation between university colleges and the university wherever possible.

"The reforms are a given, and we must explore the possibilities within them. The fact is, we already have extensive cooperation with university colleges: we educate most of the PhD students for university colleges, we currently have 25 research projects in collaboration with university colleges—and we would also like to cooperate on the new professional Master’s programmes where it makes sense," he says.

"But we're not naïve," he adds, referring to the fact that the new programmes might undermine the recruitment base for DPU's Master's programmes.

When asked whether the new reform is mostly good or bad news for DPU, he responds:

"We can take a concrete example with the Master's programme in educational psychology, which is one of the highly sought-after programmes we offer. In our view, there’s no immediate need for a new programme in that area, as we've also stated ahead of the reform," says Claus Holm, noting that the previous division of labour, where university colleges trained bachelor’s graduates while universities offered Master's programmes, has now been broken.

"Now, the question is whether a new collaboration can be found between institutions within the new distinction, where some focus more on training practice-oriented graduates, while others focus on research-based Master’s programmes."

DPU will shrink

It is a fact that the future DPU will be smaller as a consequence of the Master’s reform and the resulting student quotas. The institute, like the rest of Arts, must reduce the number of enrolled students, and several programmes will be restructured. The question then is whether the new reform and the resulting competition will lead to a further reduction in the number of future students. Claus Holm predicts that the educational part of DPU will become smaller, while the research component will, conversely, grow.

"Educational research will become more prominent at AU as a whole. We've already seen that happen within the framework of TrygFonden's Centre for Child Research, and according to the Reform Commission, more funds should be allocated to educational research," says Claus Holm, who is optimistic on behalf of the institute—and AU—as the country’s largest capacity in educational research.

"It’s completely premature to talk about a funeral atmosphere regarding our Master’s programmes just because the world now sees a practice-oriented professional Master’s," he says.

"Reforms make us smaller, and we won’t necessarily have the same division of labour we have today. But of course, we will explore opportunities to make research more central to our bottom line, and I believe there are good opportunities for that," says the institute leader, pointing out that this is something the institute has been working systematically on for several years.

At the same time, he assesses that the institute will remain central to the education of PhDs in the educational field, just as the development of areas such as gerontopedagogy (education related to aging and old age, red.) will likely become more important in a society like Denmark’s, which is seeing an increasing elderly population.

"It’s completely premature to talk about a funeral atmosphere regarding our Master’s programmes just because the world now sees a practice-oriented professional Master’s," says Claus Holm.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.