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University of Copenhagen suffers huge drop in prestigious rankings

Sarah Oueslati, Julia Schenner
June 30th, 2023


This article is more than 1 year old.

Denmark in decline with their Swedish counterparts in the ascendancy

One a year, Copenhagen University makes its payroll public (photo: Jens Flink-Jensen)

It’s been a rough year for the country’s universities.

First there is the threat of shortened courses: the government is still keen to reduce certain master’s courses from two years to one, even though support parties SF, Liberal Alliance and Konservative, as of June 7, were beginning to question the wisdom of the bill.

And with that still rumbling in the background came the news that the University of Copenhagen has suffered a huge drop in the prestigious QS World University Rankings for 2024, falling from 82nd to 107th.

And it was not alone, as DTU also fell markedly, from 104th to 121st.

Disappointing slump
All of this means that the University of Copenhagen is now only the fourth best uni in the Nordics, trailing Swedish trio KTH Royal Institute of Technology (73), Lund University (85) and Uppsala University (105).

Previously the University of Copenhagen was the top establishment in the Nordics – in 2022 and 2023.

And it also means that Denmark only has two universities in the top 10 and five in the top 30.

The only other Danish universities to make the top 30 were Aarhus University (143), University of Southern Denmark (326) and Aalborg University (336).

A few indications of brilliance
However, the University of Copenhagen remains the most well-renowned faculty among international academics in the Nordic region, ranking 80th overall for Academic Reputation.

It is also considered to be the most collaborative Nordic institution, ranking 19th worldwide for International Research Network. 

Aarhus University, meanwhile, achieved the highest indicator ranking of any Danish uni, placing 18th for Sustainability. 

DTU was among the world’s top 100 for both its Faculty per Student Ratio and International Faculty Ratio.

Sweden top in the Nordics
While Denmark achieved the highest scores in two of the nine indicators, Sweden managed it in six.

According to QS, Sweden can therefore be considered the Nordic nation with the most successful higher education system.

Leading the rankings for the 12th consecutive year was MIT – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by British duo The University of Cambridge and The University of Oxford.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”