Summer University continues its success

Summer is just around the corner, but that doesn’t mean that Aarhus University is shutting down for the holiday.

On the contrary, almost 3,000 students and teachers from Denmark and abroad will ensure that the university continues as a hive of activity well into August.

This year, the faculties are running almost 100 summer courses, and although most of the students are from Denmark, the number of international students has grown in recent years and is now back to the level it was before the Covid pandemic. This summer, around 650 international students – from 79 different countries – will travel to Aarhus to expand their educational horizons.

“There are more and more people out there who are attracted by the interesting and academically rigorous courses our faculties have put together, and we’re delighted that the Summer University is continuing to grow,” explains Kaja Henneberg, head of section at the International Office at AU.

Academic bartering

She points out that the influx of international students provides many benefits for Aarhus University’s own students:

“Firstly, it means that you can be taught by high-profile visiting lecturers from abroad and that you can generally enjoy even more of an international campus experience than you can during the semester. This can be particularly rewarding for those students who don’t have the opportunity to study abroad themselves. But it also frees up a lot of student places in other countries that AU students wouldn’t otherwise have access to.”

Kaja Henneberg explains that exchange agreements between universities are often based on reciprocity. So when international students study at the Summer University, it means that AU’s students get access to more student exchange places – many of them at Australian, American or British universities that are highly sought after by Danish students.

This year, 110 places for AU students planning to study abroad have been created due to the number of international students visiting the Summer University.

Facts about AU Summer University

• Total number of students in 2024: 2,682 (2020: 2,346)
• Number of international students in 2024: Approx. 650 (2020: 246)
• Number of courses: 90 (approximately half run by Aarhus BSS)
• AU has held the Summer University since 2011
• The international students represent a total of 79 different countries. Most are from the UK and Germany, but Canada, the USA and India are also in the top ten.