Applications to higher education drop by 2 percent

Denmark received 84,043 applications for higher education this year through either quota 1 or 2, the Ministry of Research, Education and Digitisation announced after Sunday’s noon deadline for quota 1 applications.

The total number of applicants is 1,465 lower than last year, a decrease of 2 percent.

Quota 1 admits students based solely on their grade point average from qualifying exams, while quota 2—whose application deadline was in March—considers both grades and other academic and extracurricular activities.

Research, Education and Digitisation Minister Christina Egelund said the slight decline falls within normal fluctuations but may signal a future trend as smaller youth cohorts lead to fewer students.

Applications to welfare-related programmes rose by 2 percent compared to 2025, with social work seeing an 8 percent increase and nursing a 5 percent rise. English-taught programmes attracted 4 percent more foreign applicants, particularly from the Nordics and EU/EEA, now accounting for 26 percent and 10 percent of such applications respectively. Meanwhile, applications from non-EU/EEA countries dropped by 21 percent.

STEM and IT programmes saw declines of 3 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Primary school teaching and pedagogy programmes each fell by 1 percent, while vocational academy programmes dropped by 11 percent. Bachelor’s and professional programmes remained largely stable.

Humanities bachelor’s programmes at universities saw fewer applicants across the board, with Roskilde University experiencing nearly a 25 percent drop in that field.