Master’s degree programmes
Find your master’s degree programme and read more about requirements and admission to programmes
Get an overview of when and how you apply for admission to a master's degree programme at the University of Copenhagen.
In order to apply for admission to a master's degree programme, you must have a qualifying bachelor's degree or a similar Danish or international degree which we assess as relevant.
Deadline for applications for master’s degree programmes
Application deadlines for the individual master's degree programmes may vary. Some programmes admit students twice a year, while others only in September.
Most of the programmes taught in Danish has no special deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Regarding those programmes, the 1 March/15 October deadline applies for all applicants.
You can find the application deadlines for the programme you want to apply for in the full list of UCPH's master's degree programmes.
Study start in September
1 March at 23:59
Application deadline for Danish applicants and applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The application portal opens on 16 January. You will receive a reply by 10 June.
15 January at 23:59
Application deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The application portal opens on 15 November. You will receive a reply by 1 May.
Study start in February
15 October at 23:59
Application deadline for Danish applicants and applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The application portal opens on 15 August. You will receive a reply by 10 December.
1 September at 23:59
Application deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The application portal opens on 15 July. You will receive a reply by 1 December.
Vacant student places
Vacant places on master's degree programmes will be published from May through July. List of vacant places
How to apply for admission
In order to apply for admission to a master's degree programme, you should go to the relevant programme and read the requirements. There you will also find a link to the application portal where you can submit your application.
See list of master's degree programmesRead the user guide to the application portal
How to apply
The application procedure varies depending on your citizenship, bachelor's degree and faculty. Before you apply for a master’s programme, please read the programme description.
Admission to a master’s degree programme requires specific documentation which must be submitted together with the application. Please read the programme description carefully before submitting your application.
Applicants can apply for a maximum of three master’s degree programmes starting in the same semester.
Data exchange – sending documentation is easy
If you have a bachelor's degree from a Danish university, you can automatically transfer your data by using the data exchange feature. See the user guide to the application portal.
Please check that all data about your exams have been transferred. It is your responsibility to make sure that the University of Copenhagen receives the documentation. This means that you must upload the documentation manually if the data exchange is unsuccessful.
If you manually submit documentation for your bachelor’s degree (for example, transcript of grades or diploma), UCPH will contact the university at which you earned your degree and ask them to verify the documentation.
- You can apply for up to three degree programmes at the University of Copenhagen.
- If you want to make sure to be admitted through your legal right, you must enter the programme for which you have a legal right of admission as your first priority.
- Your prioritisation is binding after the application deadline and cannot subsequently be changed.
- You will only receive one offer of admission/conditional admission from the University of Copenhagen
(meaning that applications for other programmes of lower priority will lapse when you are offered a place). - You can apply for an additional three programmes if vacant places are available in the second application round.
You will receive a reply to your application for admission to the master’s degree programme via the application portal. You will be notified by email when the answer is ready in the portal. Remember to check your spam folder as the email might be flagged as spam. Please use an email account that you always have access to, and not one that will be deactivated after you have completed your bachelor’s programme.
Applications are assessed on an ongoing basis, and you can receive an offer for admission at any time after the application deadline.
Applicants from EU/EEA countries
- If the programme’s application deadline is 1 March, you will receive a reply by 10 June.
- If the programme’s application deadline is 15 October, you will receive a reply by 10 December.
Applicants from countries outside the EU/EEA
- If the programme’s application deadline is 15 January, you will receive a reply by 10 June.
- If the programme’s application deadline is 1 September, you will receive a reply by 1 December.
Please remember to accept the offer of admission if that is what you want. If the faculty approves your application, you will receive an offer of admission in the application portal. You must log on to the portal and accept the place within the deadline stated by the University of Copenhagen.
Usually, it is not possible to submit an application or documentation after the application deadline. If it is a case of exceptional circumstances, such as sudden, serious illness, you can apply for dispensation. You must document the circumstances with a medical certificate or similar stating the time frame of the situation/circumstances that prevented you from meeting the deadline. The documentation must describe in what way the exceptional circumstances have prevented you from applying within the deadline.
Exceptional circumstances are matters of a grave nature. The following will therefore not give rise to a dispensation:
- Delays
- Oversights
- Not being aware of the deadlines.
Please note: You must send your application for dispensation as soon as possible after the deadline for which you are applying for a dispensation.
How your application is assessed
Entrance qualifications
To apply for admission to a master's degree programme at the University of Copenhagen, you must have a qualifying bachelor’s degree or a similar Danish or international degree which is assessed relevant.
You can find the admission requirements under the individual master's degree programme, where you can also see if the programme is subject to restricted admission. You can also read how UCPH allocates the places if the number of qualified applicants exceeds the number of places.
We have developed a tool that shows which master's degree programmes at UCPH you can apply for with your bachelor's degree.
See the programmes your bachelor's degree is pre-approved for
Bachelor with a legal right of admission
As a bachelor with a legal right of admission, you are entitled to admission at a master's degree programme, which has a natural continuation of your bachelor's degree programme's subject area.
Language requirements
English language requirement
When you apply for admission to a master's degree programme, you must document your English language proficiency, which means you must have passed English (level A or B) at upper-secondary school level. If you apply as a bachelor graduate with a legal right of admission, you automatically meet the language requirement. If you cannot provide documentation for the language requirement, you can take a language test approved by UCPH, for example TOEFL or IELTS.
Read about the specific requirements under each master's degree programme.
Danish language requirement
If you apply for admission to a master's degree programme taught in Danish, you must have acquired Danish language skills prior to admission equivalent to level A Danish at upper-secondary school level. If you apply as a bachelor graduate with a legal right of admission, you automatically meet the language requirement. If you cannot provide documentation for the language requirement, you can take a language test approved by UCPH, for example the study test (studieprøven).
Read about the specific requirements under each master's degree programme.
Only your bachelor’s degree will be assessed
According to Danish legislation, UCPH can only consider your bachelor’s degree when assessing whether you meet the admission requirements. That means that you cannot take supplementary courses between your bachelor's and master's degree programme in order to meet the admission requirements.
The only exceptions are courses/projects you have passed before completing your qualifying bachelor's degree. Such courses/projects can be included in the assessment, also if they are not part of the bachelor programme. However, a maximum of 30 ECTS credits can be included.
7-point-scale and the international European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) are used on all Danish state-regulated degree programmes.
Improved grades
An improved grade cannot be included in the assessment, as, in Denmark, it is not possible to improve a grade for courses already passed. However, grades that are changed following a complaint against the original grade will be considered. In such cases, it must be clear that the grade has been improved after a complaint.
All applicants from non-Danish universities must upload a complete transcript of grades showing all exam attempts, the dates of each exam attempt and exam results.
UCPH may do random checks of applicants’ basis for admission to the home university. Any fabricated documentation of grades may lead to disenrolment from the degree programme.
Assessment and prioritisation of applicants
All applicants will be assessed on the basis of the specific requirements for the degree programme. Applicants who meet the requirements will then be evaluated and ranked according to the programme's selection criteria. The highest ranked qualified applicants will receive an offer of admission.
Pre-assessment is only offered for master's degree programmes at the Faculty of Science. If you have an international bachelor’s degree, pre-assessment is NOT possible. Read more on The Faculty of Science's programmes.
Credits for previously passed courses
When applying for admission to a master's degree programme, you are obliged to provide information about passed elements on uncompleted master’s programmes and to apply for credit transfer. To apply for credit transfer means that you apply for previously passed exams to replace some of the exams on your new programme.
Compulsory credit transfer
You must apply for credit transfer as it is a legal requirement according to Danish legislation. That means that, in your application, you are obliged to inform UCPH about passed courses on uncompleted programmes in accordance with section 37 of the Danish Admission Order.
Voluntary credit transfer
You can also apply for credit transfer for completed elements on a higher education programme at another level. Immediately after the study start, contact the student counsellor on your new programme to ask about the procedure.
Academic assessment of passed activities
UCPH makes an academic assessment of your passed exams. If these exams are relevant to your new programme, we will approve the credit transfer.
Apply as a student or a former student
If you are, or have been, enrolled on a university programme at master's level, you must find out whether you are to apply for admission, readmission, re-enrolment, transfer or change of programme.
Read more about admission, readmission, re-enrolment, transfer or change of programme
Restrictions if you already have a master's degree
If you already have a master's degree from Denmark or another country that corresponds to a Danish master's degree, you can, in principle, only be admitted to a new degree programme if there are places available on the programme for which you are applying for admission.
We can only grant exemptions from the Master's degree rule in exceptional circumstances.
We may grant a dispensation from the master’s degree admission rule if we consider that, due to exceptional circumstances, you are without working capacity in your profession and therefore can no longer use your master's degree in the labour market. For example, if you are a veterinarian and have been diagnosed with fur allergies, or if you are a surgeon and have lost the use of your limbs.
You must apply for a dispensation at the same time as you apply for admission on the digital application portal. You must write a short free text explaining why you cannot use your existing master's degree on the labour market and upload it together with your application for admission. In addition, you must upload documentation that confirms what you have written in your free text. This may, for example, be a medical certificate or a medical record that you received when your loss of working capacity was established.
If you have a non-Danish master's degree and are unsure if it corresponds to a Danish master's degree, you can contact the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education. They can assess whether your degree corresponds to a Danish master's degree.
If you have received an assessment of your master's degree from the Agency, you must upload it on the application portal together with your application for admission to the University of Copenhagen.
If your non-Danish master's degree corresponds to a Danish master's degree, you are subject to the master's degree admission rule. If you have a medical or dentistry degree, you must inform us if you are registered with the Danish Health and Medicines Authority.
If you have an education where you can work in other regulated professions (e.g. lawyer or psychologist), you can read more about the rules for this at the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education.
Leave of absence in connection with parental leave or military service
You can only apply for leave of absence from your studies under special circumstances. You can apply for leave of absence if:
- you are to take parental leave
- you adopt
- you are to do military service
- exceptional circumstances prevent you from starting the degree programme.
You can apply for leave of absence even if you have recently started on your master's programme and have not passed the first year of study. You can only apply for leave of absence after you have accepted your place on the programme.
Please contact the student guidance office on your programme for guidance on your options and how to apply for leave of absence.
Figures for admission
In 2023, the University of Copenhagen admitted 6.102 new students into a master's degree programme. The total number of full-time students was 15.494 and 5.254 students graduated from a master's degree programme.
Application and tuition fee (for non-EU/EEA citizens)
If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you must pay an application fee. Read more:
Applicants who are citizens in countries outside the EU/EEA or the Nordic countries must pay a tuition fee. Applicants with a permanent residence permit in Denmark – or a permit with the possibility of permanent residence in Denmark – are exempt from the rule. Read more:
Tuition fee
If you are not a Danish citizen, you may need a residence permit. Read more:
Contact the student guidance office
Do you have questions about the application procedure?
See the instructions and videos in our user guides to the application portal.User guide to the application portal
Student guidance service
If you cannot find the answer in the guides to the application portal, you can contact the student guidance office on the programme for which you are applying. Select the relevant programme and click on ‘Contact’.