Decline in STEM programmes in Denmark

While countries such as Finland, Portugal and Italy have increased their enrolment in STEM programmes from 2014 to 2023, Denmark has seen a decline of eight per cent. In addition, enrolment in STEM programmes as a percentage of total enrolment is well below the EU average.

This is shown by a report from Eurostat, which has analysed enrolment in bachelor's programmes in STEM education across European countries during the period.

Laura Klitgaard, President of IDA, calls the report disappointing and generally finds the development incomprehensible.

‘In a country where we have to live off knowledge and innovation, it makes no sense that we are falling behind. After all, we are talking about a period in which technological development is clearly booming and in which the business community has drawn attention to the pronounced shortage of engineers, IT professionals and science graduates, among others,’ she says.

Laura Klitgaard adds that the need for engineers and IT specialists is growing rapidly in light of the uncertain geopolitical situation, and that the ambitions to defend ourselves against hybrid attacks, secure critical infrastructure and achieve digital sovereignty may be difficult to fulfil.

At IT-Branchen, CEO Natasha Friis Saxberg is also unimpressed with Denmark's ranking.

‘If we educate fewer IT specialists, it goes against the current needs of the labour market. Looking just a little bit ahead, fewer IT specialists will make it almost impossible for Denmark and the EU to seriously compete with the United States and China in the field of super-advanced technology,’ she says.

On top of Eurostat's overview, the university reform came into force this summer. Sector dimensioning means that enrolment in many of the sought-after STEM programmes at bachelor's level has been reduced, and that qualified applicants have not been given a place at university.

’We do not believe this is the right way to go if we want to educate for the future.

The path to greater strategic autonomy lies in having more people with the right technological skills, and this requires that there are enough study places so that no qualified applicants to STEM programmes are left with a rejection,' say Natasha Friis Saxberg and Laura Klitgaard.

A new forecast shows that the shortage of engineers and science graduates in Denmark will rise to over 20,000 by 2040.