Although more people have applied this year, slightly fewer have been offered study places at Aalborg University (AAU) in 2021. On Tuesday night, a total of 4351 applicants were offered a study place in one of AAU's programmes ranging from robotics to music therapy. This is a slight decrease since last year, due both to more rejections and the absence of the additional study places that were offered last year due to the COVID-19 situation.
In total, the number of study places offered fell by 210 since last year, but minus the special COVID-19 study places from 2020, it is 140 fewer places, representing a small decrease of 3.1 percent. And this is a fine trend, says Anne Marie Kanstrup, Pro-rector of AAU.
- We have to keep getting better, not necessarily bigger. Aalborg University’s goal is to train students for the labour market of the future. There must be a match between the graduates we deliver and the needs of society, just as there must also be a match between the individual student and their programme, says AAU Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup.
SOCIALLY BENEFICIAL AND SAFE PROGRAMMES ARE THE DRAW
Among the programmes where admissions are increasing the most are the already large, well-known studies such as Psychology, Medicine and Law, alongside smaller programmes such as Biomedical Engineering & Informatics and Sustainable Energy Engineering, which this year increased sharply with 61 and 30 percent more study places offered, respectively. Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup sees a cohort of new students aware of their responsibility to move the world in a positive direction.
- Many applicants are looking for programmes that can help solve two of the great crises of our time – climate and health. We are quite pleased about that. We educate students based on specific issues important to our society. At the same time, more applicants have chosen the more traditional programmes like law – programmes that are so popular that we cannot admit everyone. So we also have a responsibility as a university to continue the positive trend of the last few years and attract even more students to the programmes that have vacant study places and that the business community demands, such as in the STEM area, says Anne Marie Kanstrup.
STILL TIME TO APPLY
After a year of remote study and cancelled social events, AAU aims to welcome the new students to a university with full attendance and normal student life.
- This year we’re looking forward to welcoming the more than 4000 new students, after a year marked by coronavirus restrictions. As for those who did not get in, I would encourage you to look at the exciting programmes that still have available study places and to make use of counselling services – a good dialogue can often provide an ‘aha’ experience as to what a programme is really about and can lead to good job opportunities, says Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup.
