The Technical University of Denmark and the IT University of Copenhagen are set to lose 6.8% of their students due to political negotiations on a new master's degree reform.This is revealed by information recently published by Weekendavisen.
The cuts come even though the Ministry of Higher Education and Science's figures show that DTU and ITU have the lowest graduate unemployment rates in the country.
At the same time, demand for engineers and IT specialists from the business sector is sky-high, as pointed out by ITU's President, Per Bruun Brockhoff, and DTU's President, Anders Overgaard Bjarklev, in an opinion piece in Altinget.
"It is paradoxical that they want to cut where the need is greatest. Society needs technical specialists more than ever to accelerate the green transition and promote digitization. The numbers clearly show this," says DTU's President, Anders Overgaard Bjarklev.
'Strategy is misguided'
The purpose of the political agreement is to strengthen the connection between education and the labour market. However, according to the two universities, the upcoming dimensioning contradicts this purpose.
"Companies, especially in the Capital Region, are in dire need of more IT specialists. We already struggle to meet their demands, and this will make it even harder," says the IT University's President, Per Bruun Brockhoff.
DTU and ITU point out that if the government's strategy with dimensioning is to encourage more young people to apply for education in fields like pedagogy, teaching, or nursing, this strategy is misguided. Recently, the union DM demonstrated that previous dimensioning has not resulted in more young people moving to the major welfare education programmes. On the contrary, dimensioning has led to increased competition for the most sought-after university programs.
"It seems senseless to continue a line of action that, instead of solving a problem, creates a host of new ones. We foresee a major problem in reaching the climate goals the government has set if we are not allowed to educate the specialists that are needed," says DTU's President, Anders Bjarklev.
Read the entire opinion piece here (available in Danish only).
