Aarhus University Seal

Welcome to AU
Summer University

Teaching dates for 2025:

Term 1: July 2 - July 18 // Term 2: July 23 - August 8.

Applications are open from TBA.

Important information about our May application round
To avoid geographic unfairness in terms of timezones and because we do not want you to stay up late or get up very early to apply for our courses, the first 48 hours of the application round will not be first come – first served.

This means that everyone that applies between May 1st 00.01 AM CEST – May 3rd 00.01 AM CEST will be treated equally and we will draw lots, if more applications for a course than seats in this period.

Applicants will hear from us as soon as possible after May 3rd.

We hope we are able to offer you your first priority course, but we recommend to have more than one priority so we can allocate you to another course if we are not able to offer you your first priority.

Eligible applications received after May 3rd 00.01 AM will be treated as first come first served.

Apply no later than May 6 in order to get housing service 
Because the deadline to apply for housing is May 13, we recommend you to apply as close to May 1 as possible and no later than May 6, that way we can guarantee you an answer to your application before the housing deadline.
Information on how to apply for housing will be in the acceptance letter, that we will issue before the housing deadline, if you apply no later than May 6.

We look forward to receiving your application in May. 

Step 1: Determine your applicant type

  • If you are a student at one of AU's international partner universities and nominated for exchange by your home university you will have to apply as an exchange student. This applies to students at all levels, including PhD's. 
  • If you are a student from another Danish University and your course is pre-approved by your home university you have to apply as a student from other Danish University.
  • If you cannot get a nomination from your home university, your university is not one of our partner universities or if you are not currently enrolled in a university, you have to apply as a freemover. This also applies to Danish citizens.
  • Are you currently studying at Aarhus University? Then look here for information. 

As an exchange student you do not have to pay a course fee, but as a freemover you will have to pay for the course. But don’t worry, you will realize that it’s quite cheap.

You are probably eager to find out if your university is a partner university or not? The best way to find out is to contact your local international office. Please refer them to this page when you do.

If you have settled what kind of applicant you are, you are ready for the next step. The second step is to make yourself familiar with the required documents you need to upload to your application.

Step 2: The paperwork

List of required documents for exchange students 

Please note that before you can apply as an exchange student your coordinator must have nominated you online first. You may refer your local international coordinator to this page.

-A copy of your passport or other valid EU ID.

-A transcript of your completed courses so far and a copy of your bachelor degree if you apply for master courses.

List of required documents for students from other Danish universities

-A transcript of your completed courses so far and a copy of your bachelor degree if you apply for master courses.

-A pre-approval from your home institution stating that the course you are applying for is approved and will be inserted into your study programme at your home institution. 

List of required documents for freemovers

-A copy of your passport or other valid EU ID.

-A transcript of your completed courses so far if currently studying and a copy of your degree if already graduated.

-Documentation for your English language skills.

English language requirements and how to prove them as a freemover

As a freemover you must submit a valid English language test to your application unless:

  • You are a native speaker with an English taught qualifying exam (including applicants with a qualifying examination from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland, or Ireland). Please note that applicants with a qualifying examination from all other countries (including African and Asian countries, where the exam has been taught in English) must submit a test.
  • You have an English taught Bachelor’s or a Master's Degree from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland, or Ireland.
  • You hold a Nordic/Duborg/IB or ScholaEuropaea European Baccalaureate entrance examination with an English level the Danish Agency for higher Education considers comparable to a B level.
  • You are studying at a partner university which has approved your course to be inserted into your study programme.
  • You are a PhD student

If none of the above is the case you must submit a valid English test before we can accept your application. We do not accept IELTS and TOEFL tests that are more than 2 years old at the time of the application deadline. Cambridge tests do not have an expiration date.
If you do not currently hold a valid English test it is possible to submit the test results later on also after the application deadline. The deadline for submitting your language test results is May 15th. The list of accepted language test is as follows:

TOEFL
Test result of at least 83.
The Aarhus University TOEFL code is 8935.

IELTS:

English B – IELTS Academic test result of at least 6.5 points.

Cambridge ESOL examinations
English B – Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) (only grades A, B or C) or First Certificate with grade A or 180 points as a minimum on the Cambridge English Scale.

CEFR validated English language course at C1 level

Step 3: Select your courses

Once you have settled what applicant type you are and have sorted the paper work you need to decide which courses you wish to apply for.

You will find our courses in our course list

The first thing you can do to make sure you are qualified for admission for a specific course is to familiarize yourself with the prerequisites. You can see the specific prerequisites for each course on their course page.

You can choose up to 3 priorities in each term. 

You need the correct course name to be able to select the courses in our application system. Please note the course name(s) and term(s) before you start your application.

Step 4: Apply online! (from May 1)

Once you have settled what applicant type you are, sorted the paper work and selected your courses you are ready to submit your application in our application system. 
The system will guide you through, start by registering yourself:

If you are an exchange student:
Please contact your home university to be nominated first. Once your nomination has been confirmed, you will recieve an email with further information. You cannot start an application before your nomination has been approved. If you are an exchange student who applied in our main round, or an exchange student who have been nominated in between our application rounds, you will receive a link to apply for the second round directly from us.

If you are a freemover:
Please apply here 

If you are a student from another Danish University:
Please apply here 

Application FAQ

What if I need a visa to enter Denmark?

Some students who come to Aarhus to participate in AU Summer University will have to apply for a short-term/tourist visa for the period of the programme.

Since you are going to study in Denmark for less than three months, you will not get a student visa.

You can check the nyidanmark.dk to see whether or not you need to apply for a short-term/tourist visa for entering Denmark. Students from many countries, including the U.S., do not need to apply for a short-term/tourist visa if their stay in Denmark is under three months. Find out if you need a visa here.

Please remember that if you need a visa, your passport must be valid until at least three months after the expiry date of the visa.

If you need a visa for entering Denmark, we will contact you and send you an acceptance letter which you can use when applying for your short-term/tourist visa. 

Please note that the time for The Danish Immigration Service to process your visa application can be up to 45 days. We therefore recommend you to apply for AU Summer University in our first round of applications, so we have time to look through your application, send the acceptance letter to you, and so that The Danish Immigration Service have time to process your application before your arrival in Denmark. 

Please note that we cannot help you get your visa faster, if you do not apply for your visa in time for The Danish Immigration Service to process your visa application. If you do not get your visa by the time you need to enter Denmark, there is nothing we can do to help you. 

Please note that in some countries it can be very difficult to get a time for an appointment at the visa administration office. If you are considering applying for AU Summer University and you need a visa to enter Denmark, you might want to contact the visa administration before applying and ask them, if they think you will be able to get your visa in time. Some visa administration offices have month-long waiting lists to get an appointment. 

How are the seats allocated and what are the chances to get accepted?

Unless otherwise announced in the course description found in the course catalogue, seats in any given course will be distributed to the following groups in descending order:

  • Aarhus University students from primary or related programme offering the course
  • Aarhus University students from any other study program
  • Exchange students and students from other Danish universities
  • Freemovers

Within these groups the seats will distributed as described in the course description. 

It is really hard to predict how likely it is that we are able to accept your application, this really depends on what applicant type you are and how popular the course you are applying for is. So our best advice is to have 3 priorities. This way we will hopefully be able to offer you one of the three courses.

What happens if I don’t get accepted to any of the courses I have applied for?

In that case there will be a second application round from May 1 - June 1 where courses with empty seats are offered in a second allocation round, where you can apply again for different courses.

How do I know if I am qualified for admission?

The first thing you can do to make sure you are qualified for admission for a specific course is to familiarize yourself with the prerequisites. You can see the specific prerequisites for each course on their course page. 
Apart from that all you can do is to send your application with the required documents attached. When we receive it, we will assess it shortly after and let you know if you are qualified for admission or if we need anything else from you/if you need to consider different courses or e.g take an English test in order to be qualified for admission.
We will send you an e-mail in either case so you know. 
Please note that being qualified for admission is not the same as being accepted/admitted, but it means that you will be admitted to the highest possible priority where there is space according to the general selection criteria when we start the admission process. 

If we are not able to admit you into any of your priorities we will refer you to our second allocation round. 

When and how do I pay if I am a freemover student?

Once you recieve your acceptance letter, there will be a direct link to an online payment site in the acceptance letter mail. 

You have to pay for the course by credit card on that payment link within 7 days from the day you recieve your acceptance letter.

Is it possible to get a refund if I change my plans?

Yes, you can get a full refund upon cancellations made at least two weeks prior to course start. It is not possible to get a refund for cancellations made within two weeks of course start    

I am unsure that I will receive the required documents (e.g language test or pre-approval) before the application deadline, can I still apply?

If you are not sure if you get the needed documents in time, you still have the opportunity to apply for a AU Summer University course. 

In your application, please upload documentation that you have applied for the need documents, i.e.:

  • If you have applied for a pre-approval for the course at your home university, please upload a screenshot, mail etc. showing that you have applied for the pre-approval.
  • If you have booked an appointment for the English language test, please upload a screenshot, mail etc. showing that you have booked the test. 

Then we know that you are doing as much as you can to get the needed documents. 

Please attach these documents to your application and apply before deadline on the 15th of March at 12 noon. 

When you have applied, you must send us the needed documents as soon as you get them. 

When you get your pre-approval, please send it to us on our mail summeruniversity@au.dk. Then we will look at it and attach it to your application. 

The same goes for the language test. As soon as you get your results, please send the results to us on our mail and we will look at them. 

Once we have the needed documents from you, we will give you a seat on one of our courses. However, if the course you have applied for are fully booked by the time you get your documents, we will have to give you a seat on an alternative course. We cannot hold the seat for you until you get your documents.

How do I find out if my university has an exchange agreement with AU?

To find out if your home university has an exchange agreement with Aarhus University, you should ask the International Office at your home university. 

When you do so, please refer them to this page.

Will I automatically be accepted as an exchange student if I have a nomination?

No, your nomination must also be accepted by the receiving department/academic area at Aarhus University. If your nomination is not approved by AU or your home university will not nominate you, you can consider  applying as a freemover fee paying student instead.

Is it possible to sign up for two courses during the same term?

No. It is unfortunately not possible to take more than one course in each term, as they are taught concurrently.

You can however take one course in term 1 and one course in term 2, so you have the opportunity of taking two courses during AU Summer University.

What is included in the course fee?

The fee only covers the actual course fee (incl. 5% administration fee).

This means that books, course material, housing, social programme and meals are not included in the fees and must be paid separately.

You can find more information about fees and living expences here.

Do you have any scholarships available for AU Summer University?

No! Unfortunately, we do not have any kind of scholarships available for AU Summer University courses.

As a freemover, do I have to pay the EU or NON-EU fee?

If you are applying as a freemover, you will have to pay the EU-fee if you

  • are an EU Citizen
  • have a permanent residence permit in Denmark
  • have a temporary residence permit with a view to/possibility of permanent residence in Denmark
  • are under the Children of workers from non-EU/EEA countries rule

If none of the above applies to you, you have to pay the NON-EU fee. You can find the EU and non-EU fee for each course on the individual course sites.

How many ECTS points/courses can I take?

You can take maximum 20 ECTS during AU Summer University: 10 ECTS in each term. 

You can also take 5 ECTS in each term giving 10 ECTS in total, or you can take 10 ECTS in one term and 5 ECTS in another term giving a total of 15 ECTS. 

You can only take one course per term. 

What time of the day is the teaching?

The courses are usually taught between 9 am - 12 noon for 5 ECTS courses and from 9 am - 1 pm for 10 ECTS courses. That is what we recommend for our lecturers, but they are free to teach at another time or make the days shorter/longer. Most lecturers however follow our advice. 

You will recieve a detailed schedule and syllabus in June so you will know the time of the lectures before the course starts.