– People are angry and frustrated that politicians do not prioritize youth
Danish student leader:
Danish students demonstrate against the government’s plans to move or close down several thousand study places in the city.
– It is a movement that has arisen due to the anti-youth policy of the government, says Esben Bjørn Salmonsen, head of the Student Council at the University of Copenhagen (KU), to Forskerforum.
The student uprising, which began at Copenhagen Business School, has turned into a nationwide uprising, the newspaper recently reported the policy.
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It all started with the Danish government’s relocation plan, which the universities in the largest cities have been given strict relocation requirements. Over the next few years, they will have to move as a percentage of the study space out of town, or cut them. It is proposed that almost 13 percent of the study places in the humanities be cut.
Facts
«More and better educational opportunities throughout Denmark»
Reform launched in May 2021, passed in the Folketing by a broad political majority.
Eight universities in Aarhus, Odense, Ålborg and Copenhagen must move to a percentage of the study places in the districts, or cut them.
The government promises 1,000 new study places, 10 new welfare educations outside the big cities, 5 new offers in law, dentistry, architecture, medicine and veterinary and 15 other decentralized offers.
Now the preliminary goals are clear: the universities propose to move 1348 study places, create 1157 new ones and close down 2016 study places.
It has led students to mobilize in a group called the Student Uprising ’22.
– My feeling is that the frustration is widespread in the student population. People are angry and frustrated that the politicians do not prioritize youth, says Salmonsen, and adds that the mind is directed towards the politicians, not towards the institutions.
On February 9, just over 100 students showed up to protest the relocation agreement, according to Uniavisen.
Fears of poorer education across the country
In December, the movement presented a manifesto in the policy. New university law, refinancing of education and suspension of agreements to move study places to districts are among the requirements.
Students protest that the government is reducing study places to offer more young people, and that it affects the humanities and other fields of study to a greater extent. Salmonsen believes that it is a matter of the work management being higher for newly graduated humanities students and for other university graduates.
– I do not think it is because you do not get a job as a humanist, but that it is longer to find a real match in the labor market.
It takes place and the unification of education aimed at the labor market, students demonstrate.
– It’s about getting a job and getting high grades. But it is not the one right one way, it is several right ways. One must also keep in mind education which lies in the word education.
– The purpose of the plan is to be able to take education in several places and where you live. What do you think about that consideration?
– I understand one hundred percent of the goal, and I think it is a good political goal that you should be able to learn more places in Denmark. But when I read the agreement, that’s not what I see. The funding is too poor, and thus we get poorer education everywhere. It is more expensive to offer education in small places.
One forgets that research and educational environments take time to build up, the student leader believes.
– We must wear the long-term glasses when we choose which educations we run and create. We risk Denmark becoming poorer scientifically, says Salmonsen.
Part of several youth policy movements
The group currently has around 2400 members on Facebook. The movement is currently not very large, says Jonas Lieberkind, associate professor at Aarhus University and researcher in youth culture.
He believes we must also understand the uprising as a part of many youth political movements that are currently simmering in Denmark and elsewhere in the world.
In other words, they are writing about a larger wave of political expressions that young people currently need to express: climate, metoo, diversity discussions, increased stress among young people, competitive societies, deterioration of education and general deterioration of young people’s interests in society. Everywhere it is a huge pressure on young people.
The Social Democratic leading government, for example, has recently reduced the unemployment benefit rate for young graduates, says Lieberkind.
– But there is no doubt that the students in Denmark have also begun to take an interest in their own interests, the deterioration of education and a greater interest in the world and the future, he continues.
First big city, then education
– Their educational choice is first to move to the big city, and seconds that they will take education, says Olav W. Bertelsen about the young students.
He is an associate professor and joint shop steward for the academics at Aarhus University. The student uprising ’22 is a broad group of students, many of whom have roots in the student councils at the universities, is the impression of Bertelsen.

– If you are looking to get more university education in several places, then a good starting point is to talk to the universities, and listen to the experiences they actually have with offering higher education outside the big cities.
The University of Southern Denmark, which has its main campus in Odense, for example, has several scattered departments. Aarhus University, which is Denmark’s second largest, also has a department in Herning, a medium-sized city in Central Jutland.
– But the search for the small departments is failing, because the young people would rather go to the big cities.
Bertelsen believes that it will go with large resources to establish offers that are unlikely to be successful.
– The young people take education in the small places if they do not enter the cities. And they just stay there as long as they have to, says Bertelsen.