University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is Denmark's oldest university, founded in 1479. It grew from a medieval faculty of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy into a public comprehensive university on several sites in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, known as the City, North, South, and Frederiksberg campuses. Teaching and hospitals are woven into the capital rather than isolated on a single American-style campus.

Six faculties cover health and medical sciences, humanities, law, science, social sciences, and theology. Science graduates work at the Niels Bohr Institute and related physics, chemistry, and biology departments; medical training is tied to university hospitals including Rigshospitalet. University museums and botanical and zoological collections support research and graduate teaching.

About 37,000 students enroll, with a large master's share and a smaller Ph.D. cohort. International students come from more than 100 countries, many of them in English-taught master's programs. Niels Bohr held a professorship here. Alumni include Bohr, philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and physiologist August Krogh.

Graduate study follows the Bologna pattern: a two-year master's after the bachelor's, then a three-year Ph.D. that is usually a salaried research post. Teaching mixes lectures, seminars, and laboratory work across two semesters. Doctoral funding is typically a fellowship or project grant. Students live across Copenhagen and move between faculty buildings by bicycle and public transit.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Copenhagen lists 33 graduate programs across 13 subjects: 29 master's programs and 4 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in biology, communication, media & journalism and data science & business analytics. University of Copenhagen holds rank 79 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.