University of Copenhagen

Every university produces a different daily rhythm, and the differences come from structure rather than from character: how much of the week is timetabled and how much is yours to organise, whether assessment is continuous or concentrated, whether a cohort works together or separately, and how far apart the places you sleep, study and gather happen to sit. Those things shape a week far more than anything that can be said about an institution in general terms. They also vary by programme, so the description worth having is the one attached to the course you apply to.

Establish the practical points here and much of the rest follows. Which language will be used for teaching, for assessment, and for the administration you deal with day to day, and do those answers agree? Where does teaching take place and how do students usually travel between sites? What is organised by students, what is organised by the university, and how does somebody new join either? What does the year look like, including the quiet stretches? Student services can answer the administrative side of that and current students can answer the rest. Reading about the things that shape student life generally is useful context. So is thinking early about finding people once you arrive, which takes more deliberate effort than most applicants expect.

Accommodation deserves attention earlier than most applicants give it. The things to establish are plain: whether the university offers accommodation, allocates it, or mainly signposts the private market; whether being admitted has any bearing on getting a room; when housing applications open and close in relation to admission decisions; and what the local rental market expects of someone applying from outside the country. The accommodation office is the authority on the parts the university controls, and it will say plainly where its responsibility ends.

Early matters because the timing is genuinely awkward. Decisions about where to live are often wanted before the academic side is settled, deposits are often requested before anyone can visit, and the pool of options tends to be smallest for whoever searches latest. Establish what an agreement commits you to, what notice period applies, what the rent covers, what is billed in addition, and how a deposit is held and returned. Then get all of it in writing. Searching for housing from another country follows a recognisable pattern, even though every local market has its own conventions.

If shared accommodation is what you end up with, it helps to know in advance what that usually involves in terms of shared space, shared bills and shared rules, and what living in student accommodation is generally like covers the shape of it. It is also worth asking the accommodation office what happens if an arrangement falls through after you have arrived, and who a student in that position is expected to contact. Knowing the answer in advance is worth considerably more than any general advice.

Moving from one country to another for study adds a body of administration that runs alongside your application and has its own owners. It helps to hold it as categories rather than as a single task: permission to enter and to stay, which the relevant official authority decides; recognition of the qualifications you already hold, which the admissions office assesses; healthcare and insurance arrangements; money and identification; and whatever registration a newly arrived resident is expected to complete.

We do not state what any of those involve. Rules belong to the authorities that set them, they are revised, and a specific answer that fitted another student may not fit you. The international office is the correct starting point: ask which categories it handles itself, which it can advise on, and which it will direct you elsewhere for. Then ask each responsible authority directly, and keep a record of what each one tells you rather than relying on memory when it matters.

It is also worth establishing the language question in its own right, since teaching, assessment and official administration need not use the same language, and the answer can be specific to your programme. Ask what support the institution provides if you would want it, and ask before you arrive rather than after. Working through the preparation in a sensible order makes the weeks before departure considerably calmer than handling everything at once.

The honest answer to what an applicant needs is that only the institution can tell you, and only for the programme and the intake you are actually applying to. Criteria sit at programme level, different applicant routes exist within the same university, and wording is revised between intakes. Any summary written elsewhere is a snapshot of a route that may not be yours, and that is precisely why none appears on this page.

So work from the official website this page links to. Find the programme, read every page it points to about applying, and note what is asked for, in what form, and whether the application goes to the institution or through a central service, since the official pages say which is used. Where anything is ambiguous, ask the admissions office and keep the reply. If your qualifications were awarded in another system, ask how they are assessed rather than inferring it from somebody else's outcome.

You will not find a fee figure on this page. Amounts are set per programme and per intake, they are revised, and a number republished elsewhere tends to survive long after it stopped being true while still looking official. Whether you are charged at all may depend on which category the institution places you in for fee purposes, and that is a determination made by the institution rather than something to work out for yourself from another applicant's situation.

It is also worth checking what any published amount actually covers, because it may relate to a period shorter than a full year rather than to a year of study, and that distinction changes the arithmetic entirely. Ask the admissions or fee office to confirm the category that applies to you, what is included and what is not, and what period an amount refers to. Checking official fee information properly is a short exercise that prevents an expensive misunderstanding. Then read the institution's own fee pages for the relevant year and treat those as the answer.