The Danish Student Survey is an important tool to help the university provide a good environment for learning and study to all students – and it is used in the ongoing work to maintain and improve the study and teaching environment on individual degree programmes. The 2023 Danish Student Survey will ask about your academic and social well-being, teaching outcomes, experiences with stress and loneliness, sexism and much more.
The results of the Danish Student Survey 2023 will also form the basis of AU's own assessment of the teaching environment, which is carried out every 3 years (last time in 2021). The purpose of this assessment is to review the university's psychological, physical and aesthetic teaching environment and to draw up action plans at faculty and degree programme level.
Read the latest action plans from 2021:
The results of the Danish Student Survey are also used by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science in relation to:
The 2023 Danish Student Survey was sent to 31,578 full-time students at Aarhus University and 10,800 students took the survey. This results in an overall response rate of 34.20%.
Degree programme quality has been the subject of many discussions and attempts at definition in recent years. The Danish Student Survey contains a question in which the students are asked to evaluate the overall quality of their degree programme.
It should be noted that such an evaluation cannot, of course, be taken in isolation when assessing degree programme quality. Rather, the evaluation of the statement itself can be understood as an expression of the student’s immediate overall level of satisfaction with the degree programme in general.
The quality of my programme is generally high
Selected results from the Danish Student Survey from autumn 2020 are presented below. The themes addressed are the respondents’ assessment of the educational and social environment, their general level of well-being on their programme, as well as their knowledge of where they get support and guidance if they are struggling.
There is a good educational environment
There is a good social study environment
In general, I feel really good at my education
I know where to get support and guidance at my campus if I’m not well
Loneliness is not a new problem among university students, unfortunately; both AU's previous Study Environment Survey (SMU) and the Danish Student Survey always include questions on this topic.
Have you experienced feeling lonely at your study?:
Stress has been high on the agenda in recent years. This applies to all aspects of our society, including the educational sector.
In the Danish Student Survey, students at AU were asked whether they have experienced severe stress symptoms in connection with their daily life as well as whether they have experienced severe stress symptoms in connection with exams.
They were also asked whether they have recently felt stressed by a variety of specific factors, including both degree programme-related issues and non-degree programme-related issues.
Time on task (the amount of time students spend on their academic work for their degree programmes) has been much discussed in recent years. So students were asked to indicate how much time they spend on their studies in the Danish Student Survey. The question about time-on-task has been included in the survey since 2018.
Academic time on task
Time spent on paid and voluntary work
In particular, the amount of feedback students receive has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and feedback has been part of the ministry’s student surveys since 2016.
In 2020, four additional questions on this theme were added, and in both 2020 and in 2023, AU's students were given the opportunity to answer five questions about feedback. The questions fall under two categories and include three questions concerning the value of the feedback provided as well as two questions relating to the scope of the feedback provided.
Value of feedback
Amount of feedback:
Aarhus University has included the themes discrimination, sexism and harassment (including sexual harassment) in the survey for a number of years.
Below, we lay out the main findings for some of the questions within each theme.
Discrimination, violence and threats
Sexism and harassment
The Danish Student Survey the title that the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science uses as a general term for:
The Danish Student Survey was carried out for the first time in 2020 - again in 2021 - and will be carried every other year (next time in 2023). Every three years (last time in 2020), data from the survey is used as the basis for AU's own assessment of the teaching environment to review the university's psychological, physical and aesthetic teaching environment. The scope of the questionnaire therefore varies from year to year, depending on what AU will use the results for.
Since the introduction of the Education Environment Act in 2004, all Danish universities are legally committed to make this type of study.
From 2007 to 2017, AU carried out its own study environment survey every three years. In autumn 2020, AU's own survey was integrated into the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science's national survey the Danish Student Survey for the first time. This survey was conducted again in 2021 and will from now on be conducted every two years - next time in 2023.