University might be free in Denmark, but the number of Danes who choose to study abroad has almost doubled over the past five years, according to industry advocates Dansk Industri (DI).
Figures from the national statistics keeper Danmarks Statistik reveal that almost 11,000 Danes studied abroad in 2014, compared to just 5,994 in 2010.
And for many students, one semester abroad is deemed so important that they are willing to fork out hundreds of thousands of kroner to do so.
“For some students, it is essential the university is highly ranked, offers an education at the highest level and thus leaves the students with a renowned university name to put on their CV,” Palle Steen Jensen, the head of EDU, an organisation that helps Danish students realise their study-abroad dreams, told DI.
Buffing up the CV
EDU has noticed the development too. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of students who applied to get into universities ranked in the Top 100 on the Times Higher Education list shot up by 34 percent.
The number of Danes who received the Danish study abroad scholarship (udlandsstipendium) also jumped up from 1,691 in 2010 to 2,469 in 2014.