How sector resizing will be finalised at Nat

The Master’s degree reform will impact the Faculty of Natural Sciences from the commencement of studies in 2025. At that time, the faculty's Bachelor's programmes will have 124 fewer student places as a result of the sector resizing that is part of the overall Master’s degree reform. The 124 places have been calculated on the basis of the average admissions in 2018-2022.  In real terms, the reduction is 51 places compared to Nat's 2023 admissions of 732 students. This corresponds to a reduction of seven per cent.

The faculty management team has decided that all 13 programmes at Nat are to be affected by the sector resizing, although to varying degrees, and previous resizing will be taken into account.

• See outline below

Even though it has been a difficult task, Kristine Kilså, vice-dean for education, believes that the result has ended well. Nat will continue to have a broad portfolio of programmes within the natural sciences at Aarhus University.

"During the process, we’ve looked at everything from graduate unemployment, to the job market, the number of applications, dropout rates and what it will take to secure an attractive and sustainable study environment," says Kristine Kilså.

Prior to the decision on how the Master’s degree reform is to be implemented at Nat, the faculty management team developed a set of principles [link]. These have served as strategic priorities, says Kristine Kilså.

"During our many discussions, we’ve been able to refer to these principles, and this made the task easier," says the vice-dean, who stresses that reducing the number of student places has in no way been a desirable scenario. Furthermore, the new English-language IT Bachelor's programmes had to be added to the equation.

We also had to cut 51 places and find room for three new English-language IT Bachelor's programmes with a total of 75 student places. It has been agreed that all departments and programmes are to help balance the books:  Including the two departments with the new programmes. They have also had to give up student places to make room for the new English-language IT programmes."

This is not the first time the university has had to resize programmes. For example, there was a resizing based on graduate unemployment and the geographical resizing introduced as a result of the political agreement on "More and better educational opportunities throughout Denmark".

The current resizing allows for customised reductions that take local conditions into account. Dean Birgit Schiøtt explains.

"Together, we’ve managed to find a solution by which we will continue to educate skilled graduates, but there will be fewer of them. Even though there’s high demand from the labour market.  The solution also takes students and teachers into account, and it maintains focus on the faculty's academic breadth. Our programmes are our lifeblood, which is why it hurts so much to have to cut the number of student places. But it’s been a constructive process, and I’d like to thank my faculty management colleagues," says Birgit Schiøtt.

The Faculty Liaison Committee was briefed about faculty management team's decision regarding the distribution and reduction of Bachelor’s student places at the ordinary meeting on 9 September.

The faculty will still be able to work with overbooking and reallocation of student places in July.

All the universities are still waiting for the Committee for Master’s Degree Programmes to finalise its work and present the final report on the reform. This is scheduled for October. The faculty management team will then begin to clarify the framework for the extensive work on reorganising the Master's degree programmes.

There is a requirement that 30 per cent of science graduates must follow either a 75 ECTS Master's programme or a Master's degree programme for working professionals.

In June 2024, the faculty management team visited two Dutch universities to learn from their experience in developing 1-year Master's programmes. For example programmes which aim to build an advanced (new) competency on top of a basic subject from a Bachelor's programme.

"We expect Nat to develop a small range of new 1-year Master's programmes, and we expect that it will be possible to take a 120-ECTS Master's degree programme for working professionals at Nat," says Kristine Kilså.

The dean does not expect the Master’s degree reform to cause a major change in the education budget. Firstly, it will take a number of years for the full impact of the reform take effect. Secondly, the departments have already adjusted their budgets to fewer admissions after the previous resizing in connection with the savings at the faculty in 2023. Any financial consequences that may arise can be managed locally.

The Master's degree reform also includes two elements that will improve the financial situation, namely an expected increase in student FTEs on the new short and career-focused Master’s degree programmes and the possibility to admit more international Master's students from the EU.

"As there’ll be fewer student places in the future, we expect that there’ll be minimum average grades for all our programmes. In 2024, there was a minimum average grade for eight of our 13 BA programmes," says Birgit Schiøtt.

Read about sector resizing at AU level in the article: AU will continue to offer a wide range of degree programmes

1. Equal distribution between wet and dry subjects for Bachelor’s admissions
2. Upper secondary school subjects must continue to be offered at the faculty
3. All departments must have at least one programme
4. Minimum number of students
5. Student recruitment and graduate employment
6. Focus on dropout in the first year - and on the entire Bachelor’s programme

The first principle is that there must continue to be an equal (50/50 plus-minus 10 percentage points) distribution between so-called "wet" (laboratory) subjects and "dry" (non-laboratory) subjects, including a broad representation of subject areas within life science, mathematical science, physical science and IT science, with regard to the distribution of places in Bachelor's programmes.

Today, students can obtain teaching skills in the following subjects in upper secondary education: biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, informatics, and other subjects with specific subject combinations. The second principle is that it must continue to be possible for Aarhus University to educate skilled science teachers for Danish upper secondary education, at least within the subjects listed.

Today, all departments at Nat offer at least one Bachelor's programme. The third principle entails that all departments at Nat must offer at least one programme at either Bachelor’s or Master’s level.

Students at Nat thrive both academically and socially, and this is largely attributable to the number of students who pass on good cultures and traditions.

In order to maintain attractive study environments at the faculty, the fourth principle sets a minimum requirement for the number of students to make up a study environment on a Bachelor’s and Master’s programme. As of 1 October, the aim is to have a minimum of 20 Bachelor's students and 10 Master's students per programme in the newly started year groups.

Educational institutions must always ensure that they remain relevant to the society they are a part of – and for this reason the fifth principle at Nat is that implementation of sector resizing and future determination of student places must take account of where there is potential for recruitment of new Bachelor’s students and the employment of graduates from our programmes.

For most of NAT's programmes, there is focus on the dropout rate on Bachelor's programmes. This principle clarifies the continued ambition to retain more students in science programmes. Thus, we strive for a first-year drop-out rate from Bachelor’s programmes of less than 15 per cent, and we will maintain focus on retention throughout the entire Bachelor’s programme across all Nat's programmes.