Applicants with legal right of admisssion
If you have legal right of admission to the degree programme that you are applying for you are not required to document your proficiency in English.
All other applicants
All other applicants must document qualifications on par with the Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B'.
Deadline
The English language requirement must be fulfilled and documented by the application deadline.
If you need to take a language test/exam, your scores must be available to the Faculty by the application deadline. To ensure that your test/exam scores are available to us on time, it is important that you sign up for a test/exam taking place well in advance before the deadline. You should expect 3-4 weeks from the test date until you can make the results available to the Faculty.
If you have already taken an IELTS or TOEFL, remember to check that your test is no older than two years on the date that you commence your studies.
Do I fulfil the English level B requirement?
The English requirement is very strict, and only the qualifications listed below are accepted as valid documentation that you fulfil the requirement.
If you have studied an upper secondary degree, a Bachelor’s degree, or a Master’s degree taught entirely in English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or USA, you must upload a copy or scan of your official transcript and, if available, your diploma as documentation.
- The degree must be minimum 2 years of studies. A student exchange semester/year is not sufficient documentation for English proficiency.
- The degree must be effectively taught in its entirety in one of the above-listed English-speaking countries, with most of the courses taught in English.
- If your country is not listed, then you do not fulfil the English language requirement, even if your entire degree was studied in English.
Read the examples below for clarification and contact us if you have questions.
Examples that meet the English language requirement:
- A double degree where two years were taught at a university in a listed country and two years at a university in a non-listed country.
- A three-year Bachelor's degree taught in English from a listed country including degrees where up to one semester was taught in another language (for example, on exchange or credit transferred from abroad).
- A four-year bachelor degree taught in English from a listed country including degrees where up to one year was taught in another language (for example, on exchange or credit transferred from abroad).
- A two-year Master's degree taught in English from a listed country where no semester was taught in another language.
Examples that do not meet the English language requirement:
If your Bachelor degree is from a university in one of the listed countries, but includes a longer period of studies abroad, or a large number of credits transferred from an institution in a non-listed country, then it does not meet the English language requirement. For example:
- A Bachelor's degree issued by a university in a listed country, but taught in a non-listed country (e.g. American College of Greece or NYU Shanghai).
- A three-year Bachelor's degree taught in English at a university in a listed country but where more than two semesters were taught in another language (for example, on exchange or credit transferred from abroad).
- A four-year bachelor degree taught in English at a university in a listed country but where more than four semesters were taught in another language (for example, on exchange or credit transferred from abroad).
- A two-year Master's degree taught in English from a listed country, but where one semester or more was taught in another language (for example, on exchange or credit transferred from abroad).
If your Danish upper secondary degree from Denmark included the course 'English level B' (Engelsk B) or ‘English level A’ (Engelsk A), you fulfill the English language requirement. You must upload either
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) diploma
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) transcript
A print from 'Eksamensdatabasen' is not accepted as valid documentation.
You have the option of taking Danish upper secondary school 'English level B' (Engelsk B) or Danish upper secondary school ‘English level A’ (Engelsk A) as supplementary courses (Gymnasial supplering and HF-enkeltfag) (in Danish), if your Danish upper secondary degree from Denmark did not include either course.
You must upload either
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) single subject diploma
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) transcript
If you have studied your upper secondary degree at an upper secondary school in one of the Nordic countries and your Nordic entrance examination includes a course which is considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A' by the Danish Agency of International Education, you fulfill the English language requirement.
The Nordic Region consist of Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Åland.
Below you find link to a conversion table that lists the courses that considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A' by the Danish Agency of International Education (in Danish)
If your Nordic entrance examination includes a course which is considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A', you must upload documentation of this when you apply. You must upload:
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) transcript.
You are welcome to contact us at admissions@samf.ku.dk, if you have questions in relation to conversion of IB, EB or Nordic subject levels and grades.
If you hold an International Baccalaureate (IB) or a European Baccalaureate (EB) and your IB or EB includes a course which is considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A' by the Danish Agency of International Education, you fulfill the English language requirement.
Below you find a list of the courses that considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A' by the Danish Agency of International Education:
International Baccalaureate (IB):
- English A1, higher level
- English A2, higher level
- English B, higher level
- English A1, standard level
- English A2, standard level
- English B, standard level
- English A Language and Literature, higher level
- English A Language and Literature, standard level
- English A Literature, higher level
- English A Literature, standard level
European Baccalaureate:
- L I
- L II
- L III – 6 years (documentation for 6 years must be included)
- L III – 4 years
- L IV – 4 years (4 hours)
If your IB or EB includes a course which is considered on par with Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B' or 'English level A', you must upload documentation of this when you apply. You must upload:
- a copy or scan of your official (signed by the issuing educational institution) transcript
You are welcome to contact us at admissions@samf.ku.dk, if you have questions in relation to conversion of IB, EB or Nordic subject levels and grades.
Language test
You must document that you have passed an accepted English language test. Only the following English tests and exams are accepted for the fulfilment of the English B language requirement.
- IELTS Academic
- An IELTS academic test result of at least 6.5.
- The IELTS results are only valid for two years after the test has been taken. It is a requirement that the IELTS certificate is no more than 2 years old on the date that the studies commence.
- IELTS online is not accepted.
- You must also upload a scan of your IELTS test report form to the Application Portal. If you have not received the physical test report form, you can upload a document with the "Test Report Form Number" (TRF Number) so we can verify your scores.
- TOEFL iBT
- A minimum total score of 83.
- The TOEFL results are only valid for two years after the test has been taken. It is a requirement that the TOEFL score sheet is no more than 2 years old on the date that the studies commence.
- TOEFL iBT Home Edition is accepted.
- MyBest scores are not accepted.
- You must upload either your digital copy, or a scan of your hard copy, TOEFL score sheet to the Application Portal. Your TOEFL scores will be verified in the TOEFL database.
- Cambridge Advanced English (CAE/CP1) or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE/CP2)
- A minimum score 180 (C1-level) is required,
- There is no expiration date on the validity of the CAE/CP1 and CPE/CP2 exam results.
- You must upload your Cambridge Statement of Results and/or Certificate.
- Your results are only valid if they can be verified through the Candidate Results Website. Make sure to register for the service and share your results with the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
- an upper secondary degree, a Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree taught in English (except for specific circumstances described above)
- a letter from your university
- a letter from a professor
- documentation from an English test other than the specific ones listed above
- a combination of several incomplete qualifications from the lists above
Poor or ambiguous documentation of language proficiency might result in your application getting rejected.
How to submit your score report
You must upload your official score report to your application yourself. We do not accept score reports received directly from test providers.
If you have yet to sit a language test or you have not received the test score yet, please follow below steps:
If you have not passed an accepted English language test at the time of submitting your application and are offered admission, you must make sure to sit a language test no later than 1 September/February in order to ensure that you are able to submit documentary proof to the Faculty no later than 20 September/February that you meet the English language requirement. If you do not submit documentary proof that you meet the English language requirement on 20 September/February at the latest, your enrolment will be terminated.
If you have already attended an accepted English language test at the time of submitting your application, but have yet to receive the results of your test at the time of submitting your application, you can submit the result when you receive it by e-mailing a copy of the score report to admissions@samf.ku.dk.
NOTE: If you are an applicant from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland and are admitted to one of our MSc degree programmes and you have yet to attend and pass an accepted English language test, we advise you to do so and send the result to admissions@samf.ku.dk at the first opportunity in order for your admission to become non-conditional as soon as possible.
Only once the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration has received all necessary information relating to your application for a Danish residence permit, it will decide in the case. And this, among other things, requires that your admission to the MSc degree programme in question is non-conditional. There are very strict rules in relation to the process for obtaining a Danish residence permit and the application process is very lengthy and administratively heavy (two months).