To apply for admission to this master's degree programme, you must have completed a qualifying bachelor鈥檚 degree or a similar Danish or international degree programme which is assessed to be relevant. Apply for admission via the application portal.
Below, you can read more about admission requirements and which documents to upload in the application portal.
Here you'll find the different academic requirements depending on which qualifying degree you hold.
You meet all academic requirements if you hold one of the degrees listed below. Learn about when and how to apply. Note, however, that you still need to document that you meet the programme's language requirements.
If you have a Bachelor鈥檚 degree other than those listed above, you must submit additional documentation along with your application so we can evaluate whether or not you meet the admission requirements. Learn about when and how to apply.
If you have a Bachelor's degree, Professional Bachelor's degree or equivalent from Danish or international universities you are qualified for admission if your programme includes the following:
We may also admit applicants who, after an individual academic assessment, are deemed to possess educational qualifications equivalent to those required above.
When we assess whether you meet the admission requirements for the Master's degree program, Danish legislation only allows us to assess your Bachelor's degree. Consequently, you cannot study supplementary courses between Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in order to meet the admission requirements.
If you have passed courses/projects before you complete the qualifying Bachelor's degree, these can be included in the assessment, even though they are not part of the Bachelor's degree program.
You can only get an answer to whether or not your degree meets the admission requirement by applying for admission to the MSc Programme. Only the admission committee can evaluate whether you are qualified or not and they only do this once they have received your application.
You are entitled to 1 pre-assessment for 1 study programme, where, based on an assessment of the documentation you have submitted, we will inform you whether you meet the admission requirements.
This is a service offered by SCIENCE, but it is not a service you have to make use of in order for you to apply for admission.
Unless you have a legal right of admission to the programme you are applying for, you are required to document proficiency in English.
Application deadline for Danish applicants and applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
Open for applications from 16 January. You will receive a reply by 10 June.
Application deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
Open for applications from 15 November. You will receive a reply by 1 May.
Choose the category below that fits you and read more about how to apply for admission. You will also find information about application deadlines and documentation on the websites.
Bachelor鈥檚 degree from Denmark
Bachelor鈥檚 degree from Denmark
If the number of qualified applicants to the programme exceeds the number of places available, applicants will be prioritised to the following criteria:
If you have already completed a Master's degree, please check out the rules concerning a second degree.
| Admission statistics Climate Change 2024 | |
|---|---|
| Admitted | 59 |
| Admission distribution (legal right/other) | 0% / 100% |
| Applicants | 310 |
| Age average | 24 |
| Legal gender distribution (cpr. - m/f) | 27% / 7% |
| Nationality (dk/international) | 46% / 54% |
| Available spots | No |
When you enroll in the Climate Change programme, you must choose between two specialisations in either Impacts, Mitigation and Adaption or The Physical Climate System. Read more about each specialisation at the bottom of the page.
All students, regardless of their specialisation, begin the programme by following a larger compulsory course, providing a broad overview of both the natural and the social science aspects of climate change. In addition, you follow 1-2 compulsory courses, depending on your specialisation.
During the programme you can select from a wide range of restricted elective and elective courses. All in all this enables you to emphasize the natural science or social science aspects of climate change. You may also use your elective courses to follow other MSc-level courses of relevance, or you can do a project in practice or study abroad.
You will encounter a wide variety of teaching methods. Courses will include web-based learning, lectures, exercises, seminars, excursions and group/project work, and your teachers will be researchers of high international standing within a range of disciplines. A mixture of Danish and foreign students and lecturers on the programme ensures an international focus on climate change.
You can use some of your elective courses to do a Project in Practice in collaboration with a company or an organisation. You can also choose to study abroad as part of your programme. Read more here:
The last two blocks (thesis 30 ECTS) or three blocks (thesis 45 ECTS) are reserved for thesis work. The thesis can focus on wide range of different climate related topics, such as climate impacts, mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity, economics, sustainability, education or ethical aspects of climate change.
Thesis supervision can be undertaken from any department at the Faculty of Science. It is also possible to carry out the thesis project with an external partner, for example a company, an NGO, or the public sector/municipalities and governmental institutions.
When you enroll in the programme you are required to choose between 2 specialisations. You can read about the specialisations below:
The specialisation is highly interdisciplinary, focusing on both social and natural science aspects of climate change.
45-60 ECTS of restricted elective and elective courses allows you to shape the programme in the direction of your own interests. You can combine courses at different degrees of specialisation with project-oriented work, collaboration with external partners, innovation, and hands-on activities.
The specialisation can be structured in two different ways, depending on the size of your thesis:
Compulsory courses: 30 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 37.5 ECTS
Elective courses: 22.5 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS
One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
| Elective course | Elective course | ||
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elective course | Restricted elective course | Thesis | |
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
Compulsory courses: 30 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 30 ECTS
Elective courses: 15 ECTS
Master's thesis: 45 ECTS
One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
| Elective course | Elective course | ||
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Thesis | ||
| Restricted elective course | |||
Restricted Elective Courses
Choose your restricted elective courses from the list below. Click on each course for a detailed description.
The Physical Climate System-specialisation touches on all aspects of climate change, but your main focus will be on the physical climate system and climate modelling.
45-60 ECTS of restricted elective and elective courses allows you to shape the programme in the direction of your own interests, for example towards data science, computational climate science, or IPCC related climate modelling.
The specialisation can be structured in two different ways, depending on the size of your thesis:
Compulsory courses: 30 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 37,5 ECTS
Elective courses: 22,5 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS
One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
| Elective course | Elective course | ||
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elective course | Restricted elective course | Thesis | |
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
Compulsory courses: 30 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 30 ECTS
Elective courses: 15 ECTS
Master's thesis: 45 ECTS
One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Restricted elective course | ||
| Elective course | Elective course | ||
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restricted elective course | Thesis | ||
| Restricted elective course | |||
Restricted Elective Courses
Choose your restricted elective courses from the lists below. Click on each course for a detailed description.
Learn more about the programme in the:
Upon completion of the master鈥檚 programme, you will obtain the title Master of Science in Climate Change.
As an MSc Climate Change student you will learn about both natural and social science aspects of climate change:
The programme enables you to choose your own academic focus from a broad range of restricted elective and elective courses.
Thus, you may choose to study the consequences of climate change for human living conditions and access to land, water, energy, and food resources. You will learn to analyze climate change using key approaches within social, economic and political science.
Or you can focus on the functioning of the climate system and the causes of climate change. Important topics here are the key physical processes of the climate system, the design and use of climate models, the interplay between the biosphere and the geosphere, natures key cycles, and their impact on climate change.
You can also choose to combine the two academic areas during the programme. Regardless, you will get a solid understanding of complex, interdisciplinary climate change issues, which will enable you to propose solutions based on both natural science and a number of social and environmental science aspects.
Broad-based expertise on climate change is in high demand, and the MSc in Climate Change offers a wide range of job opportunities:
High quality education in English, a flexible study structure, excellent facilities, an international study environment, attractive and green campus areas, and the opportunity to experience life in Copenhagen, the cool capital of Denmark. These are some of the qualities about studying at Faculty of Science (SCIENCE) at 福利姬 that you can expect.
Throughout the year, various social activities are arranged for all SCIENCE students and for international students specifically. These activities include:
Students live in residence halls outside campus or share a flat in the Copenhagen area. You will find that the relatively small size of Copenhagen makes it easy to get around, even by bike.
The Climate Change programme is primarily based at North Campus.
The University鈥檚 North Campus is centrally located. It is home to scientific, pharmaceutical and health science research, and neighbour to the Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), Metropolitan University College, and F忙lledparken.
Many exciting building activities are going on at the campus areas at the moment, including the construction of and the Niels Bohr Building. Furthermore, North Campus is part of a coherent district of science, health and interdisciplinarity 鈥� 鈥� which is being developed these years.
You can read more about campus life at the university here:
Here you will find some useful links and videos about student life and housing in Copenhagen, and the welcome programme for international students at Faculty of Science.
Meet Elizabeth and Alex who study at the 福利姬 in Denmark. See what it is like to live and study in Denmark.
The SCIENCE Welcome Programme is a great way for international students to be introduced to the Faculty of Science at the 福利姬.
Read interviews with a student and graduate from the Master of Science programme (MSc) in Climate Change:
"The programme is in the start-up phase, but I think it is very well thought through", says Emelie 脰hlander. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Earth Science from Stockholms Universitet and among the first ones attending the new programme in Climate Change.
In fact I didn鈥檛 find any master programme in Sweden that I found interesting. My sister said, why don鈥檛 you look at 福利姬? So I looked around at the website, and then I found this master programme.
I studied Earth Science (Geoscience) in Stockholm, but I lack knowledge in chemistry for instance, and that limits the possibilities a bit. So I was looking for a combination of science and politics.And I think Climate Change has a good interdisciplinary science.
I can read the courses and do a good job, even though I lack some of the basic knowledge in chemistry for instance. You can learn it along the way. And as I haven鈥檛 studied so much politics, here you can address such subjects as economic impacts and how governments work, and I think that鈥檚 crucial as well, when you are working with climate change.
We have 14 courses to choose from in the Climate Change programme. And on top of that we can have some elective courses to choose from in Denmark, or in the rest of the world, as well.
Yes, we have three profiles. You can have a general one if you can鈥檛 decide, a natural science profile which is more based in natural subjects, like what is happening to the elements, and then you have the social science profile where you focus more on economics and political views on climate change.
One of the reasons I started to study science was that I saw that environmental problems would be more severe in the future. It was worrying. I think we humans need to wake up and be responsible for our actions. We can鈥檛 just live off the earth, we have to live with it and have a sustainable society. Now I know a lot of the processes, so I can start to specialise more in climate change and learn more about that.
It鈥檚 different from the bachelor. Here you start quite smoothly, but now it starts to build up. They anticipate that you do more than on the bachelor 鈥� and that鈥檚 how it should be. For this semester it is more group work than individual assignments. And then you have to read too of course.
I think I do more than 40 hours 鈥� definitely. I had a student job in Stockholm for every other weekend, and I鈥檓 so relieved I don鈥檛 have to work here, because I feel I don鈥檛 have the time. A lot of Danes are studying and working at the same time, they seem to manage, but I think it鈥檚 nice to have one day off in the week. But you have an evenly distributed workload over the year.
I think it鈥檚 really good. It鈥檚 nice the libraries are distributed all over Copenhagen, so you don鈥檛 have to go so far to find one. The facilities at the libraries are really nice. At Frederiksberg Campus for example, you have free copy prints, and that鈥檚 really good for the students.
I love it. Except for London I鈥檝e never loved a city that much as Copenhagen. I like the biking culture. The people actually care here. It seems like the Copenhageners are quite aware of climate changes, and Denmark as a whole do a lot of things for research and adaptation measures. And the people here are really nice and friendly. The main problem here is the Danish 鈥�
Haha 鈥� no, the Danish language. I鈥檓 starting to learn. I鈥檝e applied for a Danish course for Scandinavians, so I can learn it faster.
We had two weeks introduction for internationals in the end of august, where you had classes on 鈥渉ow to be a Dane鈥� 鈥� learning how to get the CPR-number (personal registration number) and bank account etc. During these weeks we met each other, we had a round tour of the university, and a treasure hunt with the programme.
That was really good because then you get to know somebody. I actually still see some of the students I met at the course. So the international students got to know each other before we started the actual course.
Definitely. I think they went like 鈥淥h, they already know each other!鈥� Haha 鈥� But the class is really nice and because we are so relatively few, everyone is talking to everyone and we do stuff together all the time. We often have weekly meet-ups with partying or with international dinners.
I鈥檝e never been to a programme where the students has acclimatised so fast. Everyone here is like 鈥淥h, you are new here. Call me if you want to ask something, or 鈥︹�� They are really helpful.
My main goal? To work at the UN with climate change issues like adaptation - or trying to address what is going to happen and try to educate people. Policy making or campaigns 鈥� that鈥檚 what I have been seeing myself doing. I would like to work globally.
After graduation Emelie worked as a consultant on sustainable development at NIRAS in Denmark. She now works as a Climate Action Program Manager at Ericsson in Sweden.
Our student guidance are ready to assist you with answers to your questions about:
Do you have questions about digital application? Check our user guide to the application portal.
In case of technical problems, please contact the IT-support by
