Entry requirements and qualifying examinations

Depending on which country your educational background comes from, the number of documents you must add varies. 

Most secondary degree Diplomas are assessed as being on the same level as the Danish High School Diploma. Though, there are some foreign degrees that require further academic education to be counted as a qualifying examination. Check our list of International School leaving examinations, to see which documents you need.

Is the country you are looking for missing on the list, you are welcome to contact admission@sdu.dk for more information. 

Qualifying examination - what is it called in the other Nordic countries

• Sweden: a three-year upper secondary school education or similar (Slutbetyg / Eksamensbevis for Högskoleforberedende Eksamen / Eksamensbevis for Yrkesexamen, Gymnasieskolen med grundläggende behörighet)
• Norway: general study competence based on a three-year upper secondary school education at a school of higher education or similar (Vitnemål videregående opplæring / vitnemål fra den videregående skole)
• Iceland: a four-year college degree with at least 140 credits or similar (Stúdentspróf) / 200 and 240 fein
• Finland: Ylioppilastutkintotodistus/upper secondary school examination and lukion päättötodistustus/upper secondary school leaving certificate (Ylioppilastutkintotodistus / studentexamensbetyg)

Solely the result of the first examination counts
In Denmark, it is not possible to improve an examination result by retaking courses or taking supplementary courses after completing an upper secondary education. The grade point average (GPA)will be  calculated of the very first achieved upper secondary school leaving certificate (slutbetyg, vitnemål, studentsprof, avgångsbetyg). Improvements in grades, or additional courses must be listed in a separate document and are taken into consideration when assessing the specific entry requirements.

How do we assess the courses taken in the Nordic countries?
To see if you can fulfil the specific entry requirements of a Bachelor's programme, we check the courses you typically have taken under your qualifying examination.  In some cases, it may be necessary to take supplementary courses after completing the qualifying examination. Check here, how we assess the courses: Norway / Sweden / Finland / Island. 

 The International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) must be passed with a minimum of 24 points before a diploma can be issued. If the examination was passed with fewer points, a certificate will be issued.

The certificate is not accepted as a qualification for admission to further and higher education in Denmark. Giving SDU access to your diploma/course results via "Request for Results Service" and your IB Coordinator.  The school code for SDU is 000157.

Certificate

An applicant with a Certificate / Diploma Programme (DP) Course Result of at least 18 points, is able to get admitted to a professional bachelor degree via quota 1 and 2. Admittance can solely take place if all 6 IB courses are passed with a minimum grade 3 (IB grade 3 = Danish grade 02). At SDU, all Bachelor in Engineering programmes (Diplomingeniøruddannelser) are professional bachelor's programmes.

To apply for admission to a Bachelor's or Civil Engineering programme with a Certificate /DP Course Result, it can solely give access to an academic bachelor degree via quota 1 and 2, if you get your IB Diploma via a retake or if you take at least 2 supplementary courses at upper secondary level. It must be at least one A-level course - i.e. high level, and one B-level course - i.e. intermediate level. Courses at C-level - i.e. basic level, will not be a part of the assessment. Check out the rules and regulations(in Danish only).

Pass requirements and academic levels

The average obtained from the IB is converted to the 7-point grading scale in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

There are specific admission requirements for programmes at the University of Southern Denmark. I.e. you must have achieved certain levels in a number of upper secondary school subjects. Tables drawn up by the Danish Agency for Universities and Internationalisation show, whether subjects taken in an IB correspond to the required academic levels. The university has adopted the conversion system for specific entry requirements shown below. An applicant who has taken his/her IB with English as a main language can be granted exemption from the requirement for English B.

Next to the qualifying examination, you have to fulfil the specific entry requirements of a programme.

The specific requirements are courses taken at the Upper Secondary High School at a certain level. You can fulfil these requirements either with the courses on the Diploma of your qualifying examination or with completion. The specific entry requirements vary from programme to programme. 

The course must be passed

The courses must be passed with at least the Danish grade 02 to meet the specific requirements. Foreign grades will be converted into the Danish grading scale.

Is the course taken on the highest level but unfortunately not passed, SDU will accept documentation of the place of study about having passed the same course at the previous level.

You do not fulfil one or more specific requirements?

You can take completion in the courses and levels which you are not able to fulfil via the qualifying examination. Check out our information about supplementary courses.

Do you want to know if you can cover the requirements for a certain programme?

In case you already know the programme you want to apply to but are not sure if your foreign educational documents can cover the requirements, we can make a pre-assessment for you.

Assessing foreign document takes time. To make sure that you do not have to wait too long for an answer, we have reserved a specific period especially for those requests.

The period to get a pre-assessment is 1 October - 15 November each year. 

Send your documents along with some more information about the programme/s you are interested in to admission@sdu.dk.

Acceptance to a Bachelor's degree programme is regulated by the Decree of Entry to Bachelor's Degree Programmes at University Level: ‘Bekendtgørelse om adgang til bacheloruddannelser ved universiteterne (bachelorbekendtgørelsen)’.

In terms of applicants from non-EU / EA countries especially, the Universitetsloven (The University Act) and 'Bekendtgørelse om tilskud og revision m.v. ved universiteterne' (The Decree of Grants and Audits etc. for Universities) is used as the regulations surrounding application fees and tuition fees.

As a public institution, we follow the rules as laid out by 'Forvaltningsloven' (The Administration Act) and 'Persondataloven' (Personal Data Act).

You can find the Decrees and Laws mentioned above at www.retsinformation.dk (in Danish).