Af Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Kommunikation og Public Affairs
Foto: Lasse Møller Badstue

The Executive Management has now adopted a model for how sector right-sizing will be implemented at Aalborg University (AAU). As part of the Master's programme reform, according to the political agreement 'Reform af universitetsuddannelserne i Danmark' [Reform of University Programmes in Denmark], the university must cut 12.1 percent of student intake in Bachelor's programmes compared to the average intake in 2018-2022. This corresponds to a reduction of 443 student places.

Although right-sizing is certainly not one of the Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup’s favourite tasks, she is pleased that previous right-sizing will benefit the university going forward:

"We’ve adapted and reduced our programme portfolio a lot in previous reforms, and this means that this right-sizing will hopefully be a 'soft landing' that we can roughly match with our intake to existing and new degree programmes," the pro-rector says.

If you compare the Master’s programme reform's Bachelor's framework for 2025 with the actual programme intake at AAU in 2023, the difference in the number of student places is 48.

The framework for AAU's internal distribution of sector right-sizing was presented to AAU's Main Joint Consultation Committee yesterday, 24 September. The model selected for distributing right-sizing across AAU's faculties is based on the calculation model that the Ministry of Higher Education and Science used for the distribution among the Danish universities.

Graduate unemployment is the starting point for calculations

"This has not been an easy task to solve, and we thoroughly discussed different models. We agree that the distribution must be done as objectively as possible, so we chose to lean on the Ministry of Higher Education and Science model," says Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup.

"It is based on the individual programmes' graduate unemployment, so that programmes with a higher unemployment rate are reduced more than programmes with a lower unemployment rate. In addition, it hits close to the real influx of students we had last year," she adds.

The pro-rector adds that the university's ambitions for developing the programme portfolio in the future will be challenged by this right-sizing.

"We will be so close to the maximum number of student places that in the future all places are in play. If we want new programme places, it will be at the expense of someone else," she explains.

'Overbooking' student intake

Every year, there is always a small number of the students offered a study place who drop out. To ensure the best possible use of the places offered, "overbooking" the programmes is a common practice.

The Executive Management is now proposing that overbooking Bachelor's programmes be increased, and that it will still be possible in the intake phase to adjust the distribution of student places offered in relation to current applications. This will help ensure that AAU's student places are utilized in the best possible way.

"It is our duty to ensure optimal use of the places we have at AAU. That is why we monitor and adjust the places in our portfolio every year," says the pro-rector.

In December, AAU's Strategic Council for Education will discuss overbooking and decide how much to adjust the level of overbooking.

Next steps

The individual faculties are responsible for the next steps for distributing study places in the individual degree programmes.

In week 44, the faculties will send their plans to the rectorate. The pro-rector must approve the recommendations to ensure that they do not conflict with the existing right-sizing or any of the discussions that are currently underway in the National Committee on the Reform of the Master’s Programmes that is working to draw the Master’s programme landscape of the future.

The national committee presents its report in October.