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Denmark draws students from southern Europe

The Local Denmark
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Denmark draws students from southern Europe
Photo: Otto Kristensen/Flickr"

Young students from southern Europe are increasingly coming to Denmark to carry out their studies an jumpstart their careers.

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Danish universities have seen significant increases in the number of students from southern European nations, according to the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI).
 
Students from countries like Italy, Greece and Spain are increasingly coming to Danish universities to escape the economic crises in their own countries. Many of these qualified students not only want to study in Denmark, they also want to launch their careers in the favourable Danish labour market. 
 
DI said that the increase in southern European students is good news for Denmark. 
 
“Our latest forecast indicates that we will have a shortfall of something like 13,500 engineers by 2025. We cannot meet this demand ourselves so we increasingly need foreign students to stay in Denmark,” DI's deputy director, Charlotte Rønhof, said in an article on the organization's website
 
 
At the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the number of admitted students from Italy, Greece and Spain has doubled since 2011.
 
“Previously, Eastern European and Chinese students dominated, but this is no longer the case [...] Former students from countries in southern Europe are good at recommending us to their friends and family,” Morten Overgaard, the head of international affairs at DTU, told DI.
 
International students are also more focused on getting a job in Denmark, where job terms are often more attractive than in their home countries.
 
“In general, foreign students have become far more aware of having to be active in the business community and establish a network while they study if they want a job in Denmark after graduation. Especially the southern European students are good at that. They are very popular with businesses and they understand what employers want,” Lotte Ellegaard, the head of the Danish Society of Engineers, told DI.

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