Danish Minister Wants Study Abroad Increase

The Danish Education minister, Morten Østergaard, wants all university students to study for part of their degree abroad in order to keep Denmark competitive globally.

January 23, 2012

More and more Danes are studying abroad, but Østergaard is keen for those numbers to increase until such a stage when all those enrolled in Danish universities will need to study overseas.

“My vision is that all Danish students will study abroad as part of their university studies. We need them to travel to parts of the world where tomorrow’s economic growth is going to happen,” he is quoted in the Copenhagen post as telling the Politiken newspaper.

“In a global world in which Denmark is a small, open economy, we need everyone to have international skills regardless of what they are studying”.

His comments were backed by Jens Oddershede a spokesperson for an organization representing the country’s eight universities, who said: “We are definitely interested in students going out and getting a more versatile and useful education”.