Aalborg University does not carry out pre-assessments of your bachelor degree in order to determine if you are eligible for admission or not. Instead you must apply for admission and wait for an answer to your application. Please remember to prioritize your applications in the Application Portal.

Admission to a Master’s programme – whether it is taught in English or Danish – requires:

• Successful completion of a relevant and recognised university Bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Danish Bachelor’s degree in level and length (180 ECTS).
   
• Successful fulfilment of specific admission requirements related to the relevant Master's degree programme.
   
• Successful fulfilment of language requirements, i.e. an AAU approved English test for Master’s programmes taught in English, and a Danish proficiency test (Studieprøven i Dansk) in case a programme is taught in Danish.
  Before a certain deadline you must meet these requirements.

Please note that the majority of our programmes have restricted admission due to a limited number of places available. Consequently, meeting the admission requirements does not guarantee an offer of enrolment.

Each programme states its admission requirements in the academic regulations as well as at the programme specific website. 

Please note that cand.polyt programmes require the applicant to hold a bachelor degree in technical science, bachelor of engineering or a bachelor degree natural science in order to apply,  cf. appendix 2 section 3.2 in declaration no. 51 of 14 January 2024.

This means that you cannot apply for our cand.polyt programmes if you hold a professional bachelor degree, a bachelor degree in humanities or a bachelor degree in social science.

Cand. polyt programmes at Aalborg University: 

• Advanced Power Electronics (Esbjerg)
• Architecture, MSc in Engineering (Aalborg)
• Bioengineering (Esbjerg)
• Biotechnology (Aalborg)
• Byggeledelse (Aalborg)
• Chemical Engineering (Esbjerg)
• Chemistry (Aalborg)
• Computer Engineering / AI, Vision and Sound (Aalborg)
• Computer Engineering / Networks and Distributed Systems (Aalborg)
• Cyber Security (Copenhagen)
• Electronic Systems (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Electrical Power Systems and High Voltage Engineering (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Technology (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Mechatronic Control Engineering (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Power Electronics and Drives (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Thermal Energy and Process Engineering (Aalborg)
• Energy Engineering / Wind Power Systems (Aalborg)
• Indoor Environmental and Energy Engineering (Aalborg)
• Industrial Design, MSc in Engineering (Aalborg)
• Innovative Communication Technologies and Entrepreneurship (Copenhagen)
• Intelligent Reliable Systems (Esbjerg)
• Management Engineering / Operations and Innovation Management (Aalborg)
• Management Engineering / Operations and Supply Chain Management (Aalborg)
• Matematik-teknologi (Aalborg)
• Mechanical Engineering / Biomechanical Engineering (Aalborg)
• Mechanical Engineering / Design of Mechanical Systems (Aalborg)
• Mechanical Engineering / Electro-Mechanical System Design (Aalborg)
• Mechanical Engineering / Manufacturing Technology (Aalborg)
• Physics and Technology / Nanobiotechnology
• Physics and Technology / Nanomaterials and Nanophysics
• Produkt- og Designpsykologi (Aalborg)
• Robotics (Aalborg)
• Software (Copenhagen)
• Software (Aalborg)
• Sound and Music Computing (Copenhagen)
• Structural and Civil Engineering (Aalborg)
• Structural Design and Analysis (Esbjerg)
• Sundhedsteknologi (Aalborg)
• Sustainable Biotechnology (Copenhagen)
• Sustainable Cities (Copenhagen)
• Sustainable Design (Copenhagen)
• Sustainable Energy Engineering / Offshore Energy Systems (Esbjerg)
• Sustainable Energy Engineering / Fluids and Process Systems (Esbjerg)
• Urban Design, MSc in Engineering (Aalborg)
• Urban, Energy and Environmental Planning / Cities and Sustainability (Aalborg)
• Urban, Energy and Environmental Planning / Environmental Management and Sustainability Science (Aalborg)
• Urban, Energy and Environmental Planning / Sustainable Energy Planning and Management (Aalborg)
• Urban, Energy and Environmental Planning / Urban Planning and Management (Aalborg)
• Veje og trafik (Aalborg)
• Water and Environmental Engineering (Aalborg)

Restricted admission means that there might be fewer study places than qualified applicants. Thus meeting the admission requirements does not necessarily guarantee an offer of enrolment. If a programme has open admission all qualified applications are offered admission.

Facts regarding the number of places available, the selection criteria and open or restricted admission are outlined in the text box ‘Application and Requirements’ on the programme specific website.

If you have a foreign bachelor's degree your applicatiion will always be sent to be individually assessed by the specific programme, to which you have applied.

Please note that a foreign bachelor's degree is not necessarily deemed to be comparable to a Danish bachelor's degree.

You can contact the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science to have your bachelor's degree level assessed according to the Danish Education system:

•  "General assessments for specific countries" - general assessments for specific countries
• "Before applying for assessment of your qualifications" - apply for a level assessment of your bachelor's degree

All applicants without a legal claim to a Master's programmes offered in English at Aalborg University must prove that their English level is equivalent to level B (Danish level) in English. 

Please note! When applying you must upload an English test or an official receipt confirming that you have registered for one of the tests we approve. If you upload a receipt, we will ask for the test result during spring/summer if you are admitted to AAU. Hence, a test result is not necessary when applying. See deadline for uploading the final test result.

We do not accept IELTS and TOEFL tests that are more than 2 years old at the time of the application deadline. We do not accept the “TOEFL MyBest Scores” and "IELTS One Skill Retake". 

If you hold a Bachelor’s degree from a Danish educational institution, and you took one of the mentioned tests less than two years before your bachelor admission with a score that meets our minimum requirements, it may be possible for you to be exempted from taking a new English test even if your test certificate is more than 2 years old. Please send us an email explaining your situation to hear more.

How can I meet the language requirements?

You can prove your language proficiency by uploading one of the following tests. The scores must be minimum:

IELTS (including IELTS Online) (academic test): 6.5 overall band score.
TOEFL iBT (internet-based + Home Edition): 85 
C2 Proficiency (CPE): 180/ level C1
C1 Advanced (CAE): 180/ grade C
ECPE: Passed test including certificate

New English requirements from the September 2025 intake:

IELTS (including IELTS Online) (academic test): 6.5 overall band score with a minimum score of 6.0 in each section. 
TOEFL iBT (internet-based + Home Edition): 85 with a minimum score of 20 in each section.  
C2 Proficiency (CPE): 180/ level C1
C1 Advanced (CAE): 180/ grade C
ECPE: Passed test including certificate

Please note that Aalborg University will verify all tests at the specific test center.

You can also upload one of the following:

• An English taught qualifying upper secondary school diploma, Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK or Ireland. (Minimum two years of the upper secondary school, bachelor or master must have taken place in one of the mentioned countries).
   
• A Nordic or German upper secondary school diploma, International Baccalaureate (from the IB diploma programme) or European Baccalaureate (from Schola Europaea) with an English level equivalent to a Danish B level in English.
   
• A Danish Upper secondary school diploma - 'English level B'.
   
• Realkompetencevurdering from VUC (minimum Danish B-level) (only possible to obtain if you are living in Denmark and have a Danish CPR number)

Please note that a Bachelor's degree taught in English from a Danish institution does not exempt you from meeting the language requirements due to new guidelines from The Ministry of Higher education and Science.

If you are applying for admission to a Danish taught Master’s programme and your qualifying exam was not taught in Danish, you will need to pass the Danish proficiency test ‘Studieprøven i dansk’ or an equivalent test prior to the commencement of studies.

For current AAU students only
 

A legal claim means that you have the right to be admitted to the Master's programme, which constitutes the natural extension of the subject area of your Bachelor’s degree. The legal claim applies to the Master’s programme on the University in which you took your Bachelor’s degree. In the curriculum for each Master’s programme, you can see which Bachelor’s programmes that gives you a legal claim for the Master’s programme. Please note that the legal claim only is valid on the campus, where your Bachelor’s degree is passed.

So far, the legal claim for admission has been valid only in immediate continuation of the completion of your Bachelor’s degree at Aalborg University.

As of 1 July 2019, the legal claim is extended to be valid for three years.

Those three years of legal claim is calculated from the first-coming summer intake, after you have passed your Bachelor’s degree, and ends after the summer intake three years after. In other words, if you hold a legal claim to a Master’s programme, you have, including your year of dimension, the possibility to apply for admission to the Master’s programme, to which you have a legal claim, at four intakes (the year of dimension and the three following intakes during the summer).

The legal claim can only be used one time. The legal claim is used, when you have applied for admission and accepted the offered study place on the Master’s programme to which you have a legal claim. If you have not accepted the offered study place, the legal claim is not considered used, and thereby you continue to have a legal claim, if the three years has not passed.  

The legal claim is first used when you have accepted the offered study place. The minute you accept the offered study places at a Master’s programme, to which you have a legal claim, the legal claim is considered used, and consequently it will not be possible to use the legal claim for a later intake.

Please note that the legal claim only is valid, when you apply for admission within the given application deadline

The legal claim for admission to a Master’s programme is limited to the Master’s programme offered at the campus on which you have completed your Bachelor's programme.

Accept an offer of admission in time

Please note that in order to maintain your legal claim for admission, you must accept the offer of admission in time. The deadline for accepting an offered place will appear from your admission letter.

Legal claim and restricted admission

If your legal claim gives admission to an entry-restricted programme, you have to be particular alert to use your legal claim, since you in the period with a legal claim is assured a study place on the Master’s programme to which you have legal claim. Not until all applicants with a legal claim has been offered a study place, other qualified applicants are offered the remaining study places.

Please note that the legal claim for admission applies to the study programme related to your bachelor programme and only to the entire study programme, not to a specific track or specialisation of the programme. 

Exemption in order to register for subjects at a Master’s programme

As a general rule, admission to a Master’s programme requires that you have completed your Bachelor's studies. However, if you still need to pass minor parts of your Bachelor's programme at AAU, your study board may grant you exemption from this rule. You must apply for an exemption; and your study board will then assess whether you would be able to pass your Bachelor’s programme or not while attending courses at your Master's programme.

However, while still being enrolled in and in the process of completing a Bachelor's programme, you must not attend courses and exams exceeding 30 ECTS points at a Master's programme. Thus, you cannot register for courses exceeding 30 ECTS until you have completed your Bachelor's studies.

Please note that this exemption may only be granted to current students at AAU and is pursuant to Danish legislation.

When and how to apply for exemption

Please apply for the exemption simultaneously with your application for admission. In case your delay does not become apparent to you until after the application deadline, please send the application for exemption as soon as possible and no later than 25 August. This deadline also applies if the result of a re-examination in August is not known by 25 August. Apply for exemption by filling out the application form available at this webpage and send it to the Admissions Office.

Application form

The admissions office

Additional examination attempt?

If you have not passed all examinations of your Bachelor’s programme and have used up the 3 examination attempts, you must apply for exemption in order to have an additional examination attempt. You must send your application for exemption to your study board.
 

SU and delays

Please note that you will not be entitled to receive SU (the state education grant) for a Master's programme until you have completed your Bachelor’s degree.

Read more about SU

Assessing your application for admission

As a general rule, only courses that form part of your Bachelor’s degree will be taken into consideration in the assessment of your basis for admission to a Master’s programme.

Only two particular cases allow for supplementary courses (max 30 ECTS) to be taken into account:

1. Supplementary courses before completing your bachelor’s degree

Supplementary courses have been completed before the completion of your Bachelor’s degree. The supplementary courses should be selected courses from a Bachelor's programme offered as part-time studies. Please upload documentation of the completion of such courses when you apply for admission to the Master’s programme.

2. Supplementary courses as part of your master’s programme

Supplementary courses are completed after you have been granted conditional admission to a Master’s programme at AAU. Aalborg University is responsible for outlining which supplementary courses you may attend. The courses take place during the summer or during the first year of your Master’s programme. The supplementary courses will be selected courses from a Bachelor's programme. The courses will be offered as part-time studies.The courses must be passed within the deadline stipulated in the letter of conditional admission; if you do not pass the courses within the prescribed deadline, you cannot enrol in the Master’s programme/continue the Master's programme.

Which aau programmes accept supplementary courses?

Each study board may decide whether supplementary courses are accepted in order to meet the admission requirements for the study programme in question. Facts on supplementary courses are described in the text box ‘Application and Requirements’ at the website of each programme. 

Payment for supplementary courses

When you need to take supplementary courses you must pay DKK 600 per ECTS. You will receive an invoice for the payment when you have been admitted to supplementary course.

Please note that once you have received admission notification from us, it may take 1 - 3 weeks before you receive an invoice for the course/courses under the Empty-place Scheme.

Once we have received and registered your payment, you will be enrolled to the course/courses.

New rates from January 2026
DKK 1.000 per ECTS point.

Non-EU citizens

Please note that Non-Eu citizens must pay an additional fee per ECTS.  The additional fee varies from DKK 280 to DKK 740 per ECTS depending on the specific programme.

How to apply for the supplementary courses?

You can only apply for supplementary courses if you have been specifically asked to do so via your admisison letter.

You can apply here 

SU and supplementary courses

A tuition fee will be charged for supplementary courses. SU is not granted for supplementary courses.

If you have completed a master’s degree, you are not eligible to start a second degree at an equivalent or lower level unless there are available study places. This limitation applies to all applicants holding a master’s degree regardless of whether it is a Danish or an international master’s degree.

If you are offered admission to a master’s programme, before you finish your current master’s programme, but you obtain your master’s degree afterwards, you cannot start on your new programme, unless it has available study places.

Please note that the master's degree rule only applies to master's degrees that are assessed to be at the same level as a Danish master's degree. Read more about level assessment.

Please note that the master’s degree rule also apply for applicants with a legal claim. 

Exemption from the master’s degree rule

If you want to apply for an exemption due to special circumstances, you must upload your application for exemption to your application in the Application Portal. If Aalborg University grants you an exemption, your application for admission will be assessed equally with other applications for the specific programme.

Aalborg University can give an exemption from the master’s degree rule if we assess that you due to special circumstances cannot use your master’s degree on the job market.

When we assess your application for exemption, we consider the character and extent of the special circumstances, you submit documentation for.

Additionally, we consider that most master’s programme provides qualifications and competences, that are so general, that they can be used in several different jobs.

Unemployment within specific fields or a shift in interest is not considered as a special circumstance, that can lead to an exemption.

If we assess that you still have opportunities to make use of your Master’s programme, your application for exemption will be rejected.

The decision regarding exemption will always happen after a concrete, individual assessment. In practice, Aalborg University will rarely be able to make an exemption of the Master’s degree rule.  

The application for an exemption

In a short text you must explain why you cannot make use of your previous master’s degree on the job market.

Additionally, you must submit documentation that confirms what you write in your test. For example a doctor's note or medical records you have received, when you were diagnosed with a reduced ability to work within your field of education.

If you want to apply for an exemption for the master’s degree rule on a bachelor’s programme, you must upload your application for exemption including documentation to your application on www.optagelse.dk no later than 15 March 12 noon.

If you want to apply for an exemption for the master’s degree rule  on a master’s programme, you must upload your application for exemption including documentation to your application in the Application Portal no later than 1 March 23.59 CET.