The legal right of admission to a Master’s degree programme was extended to three years as of 1 January 2019.
A completed Bachelor’s degree from a Danish university entitles the graduate to admission to a Master’s degree programme that is an extension of the completed Bachelor’s degree.
The Bachelor’s degree programme and the Master’s degree programme must be completed at the same university. The academic regulations for the specific Master’s degree programme will state which of the university’s Bachelor’s degrees gives you a legal right of admission.
To exercise the legal right of admission, you must apply to a Master’s degree programme no later than three years after you completed your Bachelor’s degree. The three-year period is calculated starting with the summer intake immediately following the completion of your Bachelor’s degree and ending immediately after the summer intake three years later. For example, this means that:
The right to admission can only be exercised once. However, you can withdraw an application for admission or change your answer from accepting to declining the offer before the acceptance deadline 15 June (summer intake) or 15 December (winter intake). If you have applied in the 2nd round of admission and have been given a one-week acceptance deadline, you can change your answer from accepting to declining the offer within this week and thus keep your legal right admission.
If you completed your Bachelor’s degree before 1 January 2019, the extension of the legal right of admission does not apply to you. If you apply to a Master’s degree programme, you will be treated on equal terms with other applicants without a legal right of admission.
2019 was a transitional year with special deadlines
In 2019, it was possible to withdraw your acceptance of an offer of admission to a Master’s degree programme to which you had a legal right of admission until 31 July 2019 and still keep your legal right of admission, as the rules applied retroactively from 1 January 2019.
Students who had begun a Master’s degree programme in spring 2019 and had completed their Bachelor’s degree after 1 January 2019 could thus choose to exercise the extended legal right of admission instead.
To retain the legal right of admission, you must apply to the relevant Master’s degree programme by the application deadline. See Aarhus University’s application deadlines.
You should be particularly conscious of the legal right of admission if you want to apply for admission to a Master’s degree programme with restricted admission. As a legal right applicant, you are guaranteed a place on the Master’s degree programme, and other applicants will not be considered for admission until all legal right applicants have been offered a student place.
These might be applicants who either do not have a legal right of admission or have lost it. They might also be applicants with a Bachelor’s degree from another Danish university or applicants from a foreign university.
All applicants without a legal right of admission are assessed on an equal footing according to the same selection criteria, which will be described in the Master’s guide on the degree programme’s website on admission requirements.
With your legal right of admission, your admission to the track of your choice on the specific Master’s degree programme is secured, even if there is an overall restriction on intake.
The limitations on multiple degrees mean that as a general rule, it is only possible to enrol in a new post-secondary degree at equivalent (or lower) level six years after completion of the first post-secondary degree.
However, this rule does not apply to you if you were admitted to a Bachelor’s degree programme at Aarhus University no later than 1 February 2017 and have a legal right of admission to the Master’s degree to which you have applied.
The Ministerial Order on Admission to and Enrolment on Master’s Degree Programmes at Universities and the Higher Artistic Educational Institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education and Science (the Master’s Degree Admissions Order including subsequent amendments).
The ministerial order is available in Danish only.
If you are unsure about how these rules apply to you, you are welcome to contact ma.admission@au.dk
