University of Southern Denmark - SDU (reviews)

Learning to think and act properly within multiple cultures was very exciting. The school offers a lot of international programs. The administration of the school is also supportive of students and their overall well-being.

I was studying Engineering, Innovation & Business at the Sonderborg campus in the south of Denmark. The campus is a smaller one, but definitely one of the more beautiful ones. The building is placed right next to the water and inside you have the library with real trees and many opportunities to sit down and relax with friends on couches.

The teachers are all very friendly and supportive. They know you by your name and their office is always open for you if you have any questions or need help (either academically, professionally or even personally).

The student culture is great as well and you really get a sense of belonging to the community through the student bar, which is run voluntarily by the students and also through other student clubs and meetups.

The difficulty of studying is fair. I would say it is a little bit easier compared to other European countries, but this also highly depends on the student. In general, however, I felt less pressure to study than in other universities.

I really like the programme and especially the combination of business and humanities. It gives you many opportunities and makes you a generalist when looking for a job afterwards. The programme is very international and taught in English – this creates an international environment with students from all over the world.

I am currently doing my masters, and during my time at this university I have had mixed experiences in regard to their handling of students, issues and so forth. Some less positive than others. I can recommend- each faculty handle things differently. It’s a university with a pragmatic approach to life.

The campus of SDU is like a hip district of a city: young, modern, fresh and everyone is running around with Starbucks in their hands – of course in reusable cups. The Scandinavian minimalistic interior is everywhere, sometimes it has a light post-soviet aesthetic, but I guess we call it chic.
The Campus is huge, you can easily spend your day there even if you don’t have courses to attend from 8 am to 8 pm. Huge library with 3D printers and boardgames, several study rooms, canteens with amazing food, A Starbucks as I already mentioned but I just have to do it again because it is a lifesaver and many different opportunities for a workout session after a pumpkin spice latte.
I love SDU not just because of the campus itself, but the teaching is high quality and the professors will become your friends eventually. It is a motivating University and Campus, full of life and people seems to be busy or late from somewhere all the time, but you don’t feel lost.

I would certainly recommend this university to my friends, who are always curious to learn and are willing to participate in group work.
Always open to gain new academic knowledge and are glad to meet new people at the Newly renovated facilities.
This University can provide you with professors who are specialists in their field, with a positive attitude and exciting presentations that include their own experience.
What for me, as an international student, is essential – a good social life. Danish people know how to be focused on studies and still have the best lunch breaks and funny time with fellow students on Friday evenings.

I’m a bachelor student in Economics and Business Administration in my 6th semester at SDU (University of Southern Denmark) in Kolding. Generally, what I’ve experienced from the university is the following: 1. The schools management is out of touch with its students. They absolutely love Multiple Choice exams throughout semesters in several courses, and a few courses have quite untraditional forms of exams and lots of peer feedback – one final course exam I had almost entirely relied on peer feedback. From my experience, none of the following is what any of the students attending SDU, that I’ve spoken to, want. 2. The level of education at lectures is extremely poor. I’ve completely stopped going to lectures to study all courses throughout my semesters on my own. To highlight a few cases: Once a professor spent half a lecture talking about his private life. Another time another professor spent 2.5 hours going through 3 pages of the course curriculum. Others just mock the students openly. I’ve found about 80-90% of lectures a waste of time. 3. I’ve experienced several internally made final assignments containing numerous typos and errors. For example numbers denominated in the wrong currency, their beloved multiple choices containing multiple of the same possible answers (and even missing out the correct answers). 4. This school loves, like literally loves, marketing. (Almost) everything is marketing-oriented. I literally went on exchange in my 5th semester just to have the opportunity to follow courses that weren’t marketing oriented and with proper lectures. To sum up, my time at SDU has been far from great. I’ve encountered two or three professors, that I’d say were good. If a friend of mine asked me if he/she should attend SDU, I would absolutely recommend them to look at other universities. If I hadn’t come this far in my bachelors degree, I’d probably have switched to another university.

I am doing my master in SDU and I am in the 3rd semester. Syddansk Universitet is a great university when it comes to the education system. You can find professors that have the same interests with you, that are really passionate and willing to help you out in an informal environment. That can give you a great motivation to continue your education further with them (ask them to be your internship or thesis supervisor).
But like most of the universities, SDU has some minor administrative problems: staff can be partially/wrong informed when it comes to procedure (especially the student services, not the specific department information points), the study boards can seem unfair or unable to make quick decisions, but there is always space for improvement. Also, the ECTS points in some profiles could be distributed in a better way.
What I would like to see in the future, is for the university to give more opportunities to get a staff position there, that way we can all get an equal chance to learn Danish by working (yeah, it’s easier like that) and we can also give different opinions and make the university function even better.
I totally recommend Syddansk Universitet (campus Odense preferably) to those considering an exchange or studies in Denmark in an international context!
Vi ses?!

I have spent 5 semesters at SDU, completing my master´s degree in business administration and economics. As a person from abroad it was especially important for me to have an “international – friendly” environment, which I was able to find here. It is generally not a problem in the Nordics, but in my opinion SDU markets itself the best for international students in Denmark. Really friendly supportive staff, they really help with all of your issues.
Most importantly the level of education is very high, gives you really valuable knowledge that you can use both if you stay in Denmark or if you decide to go abroad. Still, you can reach a great “study – life balance”, able to take a study job on the side which was also really important to me.

I can absolutely recommend it!