DIS Residential Community
Live with other DIS students in Copenhagen and enjoy a network of friends when you’re at home. The rooms are all relatively centrally located in urban or residential areas – most within a comfortable walk or short commute from DIS – and come fully furnished. DIS Residential Communities range in size from two-bedroom apartments to larger housing complexes (55 students live in the largest), with about 10 percent of the residents living in the larger buildings being Danes.
What to Expect
The room sizes vary and most often two students share, but up to four people may share a room. Single rooms are available but are limited in number. You will either share a kitchenette and a bathroom with your roommates or share a common kitchen and bathrooms with fellow DIS students living in the same building. Previous students have commented that they experienced a good social life connected to their academic environment and enjoyed having a “little bit of home” but with Denmark right outside the door.
Cultural Immersion Options
The DIS Residential Community option involves living mainly (or solely in smaller complexes) with other study abroad students, so social integration with DIS students is easy, but broader cultural integration into Danish life can be more challenging. As a result, if you choose the DIS Residential Community option, you get the opportunity to choose two intercultural programs that will give you a unique taste of Danish life: Visiting family, DIS Buddy Network, sports, volunteering, Ambassadors Program, or Danish Language and Culture. This is to ensure you enjoy a certain degree of cultural immersion.
From Experience
Former students have said DIS Residential Communities have the advantage of providing a few more “home comforts”, a friend network and “two worlds in one”, i.e. a feeling of home within the Community Residences and Danish city life right outside. Some students, however, say they selected the DIS Residential Community option based on the commute, which is anything from 10 minutes to 40 minutes, and then halfway through the semester they realize that they would have been happier in another housing option regardless of the fact that it means a slightly longer commute.
The DIS Residential Community option is the right one if you:
- want to live with a roommate
- want to live with fellow DIS students as well as some Danes and get the opportunity to discover Copenhagen together
- are social, independent and self-reliant
- do not consider living with Danes to be a high priority while studying abroad
- want to cook and go grocery shopping for yourself
DIS Residential Community (DRC) Code of Conduct:
The mission of DIS Residential Community Housing (DRC) is to offer students a welcoming, cozy, and safe housing option. DRC students are responsible for taking good care of the property and contributing to the housing environment so it becomes – a “home away from home.” DRC offers room for studying, dining, social interaction, and quiet time for everybody in the common facilities as well as in the individual rooms.
To ensure engagement and immersion into the Danish culture, DRC students are expected to participate in at least two of the following activities: The Visiting Family Program, The DIS Buddy network, The DIS Ambassador Program, sports, volunteering, or the Danish Language & Culture course. In some DRCs, students join a Living & Learning Community based around a theme. Every other week, DRC students will attend an immersion meeting with their SRA where they will have an opportunity to discuss their various activities and put them into a cultural context.
In order to achieve our DRC mission and to ensure the right of all DRC students to live in a safe and tidy housing environment, where partying is not a top priority, DIS has implemented a set of rules to be followed by all students, friends, and family visiting and staying in the DRC housing.
1. Drug use or possession of, including but not limited to marijuana, hash, ecstasy, cocaine, speed, etc., is illegal and strictly forbidden in Denmark (the Danish Penal Code). That legislation also covers foreigners, including DIS students.
2. Denmark has a lower drinking age and a more liberal attitude to alcohol use than the U.S. DIS encourages students to take responsibility and minimize alcohol use. Drinking alcohol in any DRC housing is not allowed after 10 pm Sunday-Thursday and after 11 pm Friday-Saturday.
3. Students who want to take responsibility for a party (how it is held and for cleaning up) can get written permission to organize it on specific days and during specific times (typically in weekends). The DIS Housing Department will assign rooms outside of the DRC building for you to use.
4. Smoking is not allowed in any DIS Housing. When smoking outside, please do so at least 10 meters (33 feet) from entrances.
5. Music and loud entertainment must not at any time cause nuisance to other residents. Loud noise is not allowed after 10 pm Sunday-Thursday and after 11 pm Friday-Saturday. When playing music, always close the windows.
6. Overnight guests are not allowed without a written consent from the DIS Housing department.
7. The weekly cleaning plan for the common areas must be respected. When participating in gatherings in the common area, the students are responsible for cleaning up. If cleaning up is not done upon instruction from the SRA, he or she is obliged to report it to DIS Housing department, which will have the common area cleaned up by a cleaning company at the student’s expense. If individual students do not take responsibility, then all students on the floor (the housing unit) will have to pay for the cleaning.
8. Each individual room will be inspected twice every semester by DIS staff. If it is not clean enough, the student will be given a 24-hour notice to rectify it. If cleaning is not done upon instruction, the room will be cleaned by a cleaning company at the student’s expense at an hourly rate of 500 DKK
9. The DRC buildings and furniture must be respected and nicely kept by the students. Vandalism or any other kind of destruction of the property must be reported by the students or SRA’s to the DIS Housing department. Students will be held financially responsible for all damage.
Students in violation of these rules may face disciplinary action from the DIS Housing Office or your home university, whom we may contact as necessary regarding your behavior. Serious offenses can lead to expulsion. Please, be smart, be safe, and be considerate!
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the living arrangement like?
- I have heard that food is expensive in Denmark, how will I cope?
- How will I meet the Danes if not via my housing?
What is the living arrangement like?
You will either share a kitchenette/kitchen and a bathroom with a roommate or with several roommates living in a building with many other DIS students, or you will share an apartment, which is not located within a building with other DIS students. These separately located apartments all have a common area, a kitchen and bathroom that you will share with one to three other DIS students.
I have heard that food is expensive in Denmark, how will I cope?
Food is expensive in Denmark, in particular if you have any food restrictions. To help offset your food costs, DIS offer Residential Community students a partial food stipend. This amount is intended to go towards your food costs, but will not cover them completely. You can ask us at the Student Services office for advice on grocery shopping in cheap supermarkets, or look in the Student handbook.
How will I meet the Danes if not through my housing?
In the bigger Residential Communities, there will be up to 10 percent of Danes living there, while DIS offers some courses together with Danish students, arranges cultural immersion options and special events, where we invite Danes. In the bigger DIS Residential Community options, DIS has employed some of the young Danes who live there to serve as Social & Residential Advisors for DIS students. They will help you with the practicalities of life in Denmark, and will also arrange a couple of social events for DIS students each semester. More about DIS Social & Residential Advisors.
If meeting Danes is your top priority, perhaps a different Housing Option is for you. Otherwise you can interact with Danes through cultural immersion options, mentioned below.
If you are in a DIS Residential Community, you get priority if you sign up for a Danish Visiting Family. The Visiting Family program is flexible, and it is up to you and your family to decide the frequency of visits as well as the activities. Usually a visiting relationship starts with a nice dinner at the family´s house. You can sign up for the program in the online registration form after you have been accepted to DIS. There is also the DIS Buddy Network (where you also get first priority), sports, volunteering options and other ways to meet Danish people!
