Master's introduction at the School of Culture and Society, Arts

Commencement of studies exam

The compulsory commencement of studies exam will be held before the end of September on the first semester of your Master's degree programme.

If you don't participate in the commencement of studies exam and therefore do not pass, you will be withdrawn from your degree programme with immediate effect.

You can find information about the commencement of studies exam in your Master’s degree programme here.

The AU Intro Days

The AU Intro Days offer you the opportunity to ensure a great and fun start of the semester. They are organised for all new international students at AU: full-degree, exchange and Erasmus Mundus Journalism.The AU Intro Days will take place August. Read more about the AU Intro Days here.

Teaching, timetables and study techniques

We hope you are looking forward to starting your new degree programme at AU. In the welcome leaflet, your student advisors have written a little about what you can expect in your first semester, and, later, you will receive further information about your curriculum from your teachers via the e-learning platform Brightspace. It is your teachers who decide what course information and materials you will receive and when you will receive them. Much of the information about your courses will be made available during your introduction week, but in some cases, however, you will have to wait for your first lessons to receive the information.

If you would like to know what your first semester timetable looks like, you must log in to mystudies.au.dk. Please be aware that normally the timetables are only ready shortly before the start of the semester. This is because the study administration has to register and allocate places for all new students. So please don’t worry if your timetable is not ready the first time you log in. It will come.

You can also prepare for your new life as a university student by reading more on AU Studypedia which is an academic study tool that you can use throughout your degree programme. Here, you can find a lot of good advice and tools for being a university student, including good study routines, note-taking techniques and assignment formalities. AU Studypedia has devoted a whole section to new students. In this section, you can find exercises and good advice on how to get off to a good start as a university student.

Do you have special needs for help or support?

At the office for Special Educational Support (SPS), you can get information and guidance, if you have any special needs for aid during your studies. Needs of support or aid may be due to:

  • Reading-/writing-/calculation difficulties
  • Mental disorders
  • Neurological disorders
  • Mobility disabilities
  • Hearing impairments
  • Visual impairments

Important: You are welcome to contact SPS even if you have not yet started your degree programme – also if you are not sure whether you qualify for aid or not.

To learn more about SPS visit their webpage: https://studerende.au.dk/en/csu/

Your local student counsellor can also tell you more. Find your student counsellor here.

IT-systems and important links

As a new student at AU, you will come across many different IT platforms for different purposes. At first, it may feel a little overwhelming or difficult to find your way around all these sites, but please don’t worry - you will get the hang of it during your first year of studies. During your introduction week, your student advisors will introduce you to the relevant IT platforms. Here is an overview of the most important systems:

  • mystudies.au.dk is your main access point to information about your degree programme and teaching and to the self-service systems. Here you will find a weekly timetable, your AU email, important messages, links to sites and systems, and much more. In fact, as a student, you can access everything you need once you have logged on to mystudies.au.dk.
  • Brightspace is an e-learning platform where your teachers upload materials and other relevant information for your teaching.
  • Eduroam. The wireless network at AU is called Eduroam. Before you can use Eduroam, it must be installed on your devices.
  • Please note that, as a student at AU, you are entitled to quite a lot of free or discounted software. Read more here: https://studerende.au.dk/en/it-support/software/
  • IT support. If you have technical problems, you can get help from Arts IT Support. It’s likely they will be quite busy during the first few weeks of the semester, so please be patient.

If you have not previously studied at Aarhus University, you need to activate your account. You can get help with this via this manual. 

Zero tolerance

At AU, treating each other with decency and respect has high priority, and we have a zero tolerance policy towards any shape or form of harassment, bullying, violence, or discrimination. No one should have to experience such indecencies - nor during the introduction week. 

If you encounter any kind of such behaviour, please see the different places you can find help and counselling through our Zero tolerance website.