| About the programme Language: English (See language requirements) | Place of study: Aarhus | Commencement: August / September (no winter intake) |
The Master’s Degree programme in Sustainable Heritage Management equips you with the knowledge and skills needed to address the challenges associated with managing cultural heritage. Working with cultural and natural heritage means taking responsibility for humanity’s connections to the past. At the same time, you will learn to understand heritage as an integral part of the present and as a valuable resource for the future.
Managing heritage is no simple task. It involves not only preserving and protecting sites, objects, and traditions, but also navigating the many interests, demands, and expectations attached to them.
Through a combination of theory and practice, you will explore the exciting, rapidly expanding, and increasingly complex field of heritage management. You will become part of a unique interdisciplinary environment where you develop the skills to assess, safeguard, and preserve heritage while also learning how to shape, challenge, and renew the field.
Cultural and natural heritage play a vital role in collective memory, sustainability, and personal identity formation by connecting people across time and place. As a result, heritage has become an important existential factor. It can also serve as a powerful economic, environmental, and political resource that may be used for a variety of purposes.
At the same time, heritage management can be challenging and, in some cases, may place burdens on local communities or influence them in unintended ways. Throughout the programme, you will learn to analyse and critically reflect on the ethical dimensions of heritage work.
In addition to a strong theoretical foundation, you will gain practical competencies and professional know-how that prepare you to address future heritage challenges at both local and global levels.
You will explore questions such as:
What constitutes cultural and natural heritage, and what does not?
How do we document, prioritise, and safeguard heritage for future generations?
How can civil society engage responsibly in heritage management?
How should competing claims of ownership and rights be addressed?
How can we co-create and communicate heritage in sustainable ways that generate lasting value for cultural institutions, creative industries, communities, and individuals?
The programme brings together methods and perspectives from a wide range of disciplines. As a student, you will join a vibrant research environment that includes scholars from archaeology, anthropology, intellectual history, aesthetics, history, museum studies, cultural studies, evolutionary studies, and digital design.
As a result, you will work not only with tangible forms of heritage but also with textual data and the ways individuals and communities engage with and use heritage.
Your daily study environment will be based at Moesgaard Museum, just south of Aarhus, providing a unique combination of university and museum settings and offering exceptional opportunities for collaboration and hands-on learning.
The programme provides you with the academic knowledge and practical skills required to work with cultural and natural heritage in professional settings.
Graduates find opportunities in museums, heritage and planning institutions, municipalities, international organisations, private companies, and non-profit organisations.
The programme prepares you for a wide range of career paths within the heritage sector. During your second year, you can choose to specialise in a particular area of interest, or apply and further develop your knowledge and skills through a project-based placement.
You may also choose to pursue a research career by continuing with a PhD.
In this section you can learn more about the admission requirements relevant to the master's degree programme in Sustainable Heritage Management. Depending on your educational background and your qualifications, there are different ways to meet the admission requirements:
This section is relevant for you, if you have:
The two sections listed below are relevant only for students with a bachelor's degree from a Danish institution:
Below these sections, you can learn more about the English language requirement. You can also find out which ranking criteria we use to assess your application when prioritizing among the submitted applications.
If you have an international educational background, you must meet both the general admission requirement and the specific admission requirements:
You must have a bachelor's degree or equivalent that is comparable to a Danish bachelor's degree in both level and duration (180 ECTS).
For more information about how your bachelor's degree is assessed, please see the national database.
If you meet the general admission requirement, the university will continue on to assess whether or not you meet the specific admission requirements.
You can be admitted to the master's programme if the university assesses that your education has a level, scope, and content that corresponds to the academic requirements specified below.
| Subject area | Number of ECTS |
| Cultural heritage studies (for instance, museology, museum studies and heritage production or administration), or a field allied to cultural heritage studies | 45 |
We cannot assess in advance whether your specific degree will meet the above requirements. Therefore, we recommend that you apply for the programme if you believe that you meet the academic requirements. In this regard, it is a good idea to compare your degree with the programmes that provide direct admission.
There is no Bachelor's degree programme(s) from Aarhus University that provides a legal right of admission to the Master's degree programme in Sustainable Heritage Management.
Certain Bachelor's degree programmes from Aarhus University and various other Danish Universities have been determined to meet the admission requirements to this Master's degree programme in Sustainable Heritage Management:
All Master’s degree programmes at Aarhus University have limited intake. This means that you are not guaranteed admission even if you meet the entry requirements. When we prioritize among applicants, we assess your application based on a set of fixed ranking criteria, which you can see below.
If you have a legal right of admission, you are guaranteed a place in the programme and do not need to consider the ranking criteria.
Ranking criteria:
1. Grade level from qualifying degree programme
2. Grades achieved in relevant subject areas:
Subject elements within Cultural Heritage Studies
3. Other relevant experience
A description of relevance (1-2 pages in English) explaining 1) the academic relevance of your Bachelor's Degree Programme to the Master's Degree Programme in Sustainable Heritage Management; 2) which specific courses from your Bachelor’s Degree Programme contribute to meeting the admission requirements for the Master's Degree Programme in Sustainable Heritage Management; 3) relevant experience in addition to academic qualifications.
CV in English
Please note that grades achieved after the application deadline are not included in the assessment.
In order to be admitted to this programme you must meet the university's English language requirements.
Students with bachelor's degree from Aarhus University with a so-called 'Legal right of admission' are exempt from the English language requirement.
Unfortunately, Aarhus University is not able to assess your qualifications beforehand. In order for your qualifications to be assessed you must apply for admission. To learn more, please go to Assessment of your qualifications.
As a student it is important to know the regulations for your chosen subject: what is the content, how is it structured and what does it require from you. You can find this information in the academic regulations.
In the following graphical presentation of the subject, you can see the different modules and courses that, in addition, link to the course catalogue where you can read the course descriptions.
Many heritage-linked jobs require a mix of practical and conceptual skills. The Sustainable Heritage Management programme sets out to equip you with both the practical and conceptual tools and understandings that you will need as future heritage practitioners and researchers.
In the first semester, the course Theory and Concepts in Heritage Studies gives you a grounding in key concepts, debates, and thinkers in the field of Heritage Studies. The course Sources and Methods in Heritage Studies introduces you to research methods and design, and allows you to undertake a small, independent research project. The course Heritage Management Frameworks covers heritage legislation and its consequences at different levels—the local, the national, and the global.
In the second semester you do a course on Heritage Project Management, which introduces you to practices of project development and delivery, including aspects of financial control, personnel management and professional pitching. A second course, entitled Heritage in Practice, explores the contemporary museum, focusing on museum practices, controversies and debates, and includes a substantial site-visit component, involving direct input from several leading senior museum curators from across Denmark. The course Production and Communication of Heritage gives you a grounding in different media: podcasts, working with film, and writing for popular science publication.
In the third semester you have the opportunity of interning with a heritage-facing project or institution. Our students have chosen to intern with a variety of projects and organizations, including museums, galleries, media start-ups, sustainable food initiatives, local government offices, and sports clubs, amongst many others, both in Denmark and internationally. You also have an opportunity to study abroad for the Semester.
In the fourth semester you write a research thesis under supervision.
The Sustainable Heritage Management program is based at the Department of Archaeology at Moesgaard, an eighteenth-century manor house newly equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that also houses the Department of Anthropology. Here you will have access to a library, computers, a common room, lounges, and a cafeteria, as well as the internationally renowned archaeology and anthropology museum, MOMU, and the surrounding hundred hectares of beautiful fields and woodlands leading down to the sea.
Photo: media Moesgaard
You also have plenty of opportunities to take an active part in student life at the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies:
In addition, there are many other events for students at the Faculty of Arts and Aarhus University in general – e.g. lectures, intro days, career days, seminars, celebrations, and sports days. The SHM student group also has access to extra resources to support self-generated social events and field trips.
The SHM Student Committee organizes social activities, has input into the academic programme, and is responsible for outreach. It also liaises with other student committees to organize joint activities involving local and international students
Photo: media Moesgård
Campus Moesgaard is an inspirational work and study environment. It includes the Moesgaard Library, which is a joint library for Anthropology and Archaeology as well as the Moesgaard Museum. You will find study space in the library, including work spaces reserved for students writing their thesis. You will also have the opportunity to see many changing exhibits at the Moesgaard Museum during your time here. As a student at Moesgaard, you can access the museum for free by showing your student card.
MoCa Mates connects new international students and senior Master’s students, with the purpose of sharing experiences of studying at Moesgaard and living in Aarhus as a foreign student. The Mates meet up on a weekly basis (at least during the first few weeks), and function as an informal and social forum for student-to-student discussions. The MoCa Mates programme closely collaborates with the student counsellors, to whom the Mates can address certain issues if necessary.
As the second-largest city in Denmark, Aarhus is a young and dynamic place with plenty of opportunities. The 40,000 students at the university make up 17.5% of the city’s population, which leaves its mark on city life. An attractive feature of Aarhus is that there are beaches and woods a short bike-ride away, as well as cultural events taking place throughout the year, including the Aarhus Festival in September. The theatres in the city and the ARoS international art museum offer many events that enable you to experience the Danish culture.
Why choose Aarhus? See international.au.dk/education and get all practical information about being an international student.
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The Master’s programme in Sustainable Heritage Management equips you with skills to work across sectors and industries, depending on your area of specialisation.
The programme provides you with competencies to address challenges that extend beyond Denmark’s borders and opens the door to both national and international career opportunities.
You may, for example, work in:
Museums, libraries and archives: You can work with the responsible handling, conservation, and safeguarding of archaeological material and sites. You may also take on an outreach role, developing innovative, inclusive, and user-centred communication strategies and initiatives.
Planning and resource management: You will be prepared to take on project management roles across both the public and private sectors. Here, you can lead projects that require coordination and negotiation between different stakeholders and interest groups.
Development sector (e.g. NGOs): You can contribute with holistic and interdisciplinary competencies, and you will be equipped to handle sensitive and complex issues such as indigenous peoples’ demands for rights or recognition.
Tourism and the creative industries: You can apply your skills to lead and develop destinations and businesses in ways that combine growth with inclusive and sustainable strategies.
You also have the opportunity to continue your studies as part of a PhD programme.
Former students work, for example, as:
Museum Consultant / Editor & Curatorial Strategist
Project Consultant
Digitalisation Operator / Catalog Associate
Communication and Project Manager
Arts Career offers inspiration, guidance, and sparring on your career opportunities while you study. You can find more examples of career paths with a Master’s degree in Sustainable Heritage Management in the Arts Career career catalogue.
