Roskilde University (RUC) is facing major challenges after the new university reform, which requires a significant reduction in the number of study places. RUC must cut 14.1 percent of their study intake, which is the largest percentage reduction among Danish universities. This has caused great frustration among the university’s leadership.
The reform, which will be in effect from 2025 to 2029, aims to adjust the educational capacity to the needs of the labor market, but according to RUC’s rector, Hanne Leth Andersen, it is hitting unfairly. “It is a double punishment for us, as we have already been sized based on our graduate unemployment in the past, and we have not yet seen the effects of these initiatives,” she says.
RUC, which is Denmark’s second smallest university, has a special role in raising the educational level in the Region of Zealand. The rector points out that the new limitations will make it difficult to fulfill this role, especially after plans to expand with new educations in the region, which are now becoming more complicated to realize. “We are losing opportunities to establish new educations in the region, for example in West Zealand, where there is a great need,” says Hanne Leth Andersen.
She also believes that the way the sizing is structured is fundamentally unfair, as it does not account for the specific challenges that smaller universities with higher unemployment rates face. This situation presents Roskilde University with difficult choices in the coming years, where they must balance meeting the government’s demands and their mission to contribute to regional development.