New mechanical engineering programmes at SDU
On Thursday 12 December, Minister of Higher Education and Science Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen approved new engineering education programmes in mechanical engineering at both Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Science in Engineering level at SDU.
Several new educations are on the way in Southern Denmark. This became known on Thursday, as the Ministry of Higher Education and Science announced that a total of 41 new educations and tenders had been approved throughout the country.
In Sønderborg, new educations in mechanical engineering at both bachelor's and master's level will be established at SDU. A Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering is now also offered in Odense.
"We are really, really happy with the approvals of the mechanical engineering educations," says Thomas Buhl, who is head of the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at SDU.
He goes on to say that the enthusiasm is due to the fact that SDU can now offer the full range of engineering educations in electronics, mechatronics and mechanics.
"It provides a coherent set of competencies in precisely the areas where the region's companies are world leaders and where the industry has a special need for labor."
Business is cheering
“We have more than 250 engineers employed here at the headquarters at Als and the task of attracting e.g. mechanical engineers has long been a challenge for us. The establishment of the mechanical engineering educations at SDU will therefore be of crucial importance for our opportunities in the future”, says Bent Jensen, CEO and owner of LINAK.
The Bachelor of Science in Engineering programme in Odense and Sønderborg is expected to have an admission of 20 students in 2021. Admission is expected to increase by five students for each year until the year 2024.
The Master of Science in Engineering programme in Odense and Sønderborg is initially expected to admit 10 students in 2022. In 2024, the number of students is expected to have increased to 25.
For the new Bachelor of Engineering programme in Sønderborg, 25 students are expected already in 2021; a figure that is expected to grow to 35 in 2024.
As something special, the educations in Sønderborg are all offered in English.
“This enables us to attract more foreign students, which is something we have great success with in Sønderborg, where about 70% of the international engineering students after graduation stay and work in the area's companies. The engineering companies in the area are world leaders in their fields, and to maintain that position, they need the greatest talents. We thus meet a large industrial need”, says head of department Thomas Buhl.
Fact box
- Calculations made by the Engineers' Association IDA for Engineer the Future state that there will be a shortage of 10,000 STEM candidates by 2025 (STEM: Science, Tech, Engineering, Math). Of these, 6,500 will be bachelor or master level engineers.
- Energy technology accounts for almost 18 percent of total Danish merchandise exports, but companies within energy efficiency lack engineers - especially in electronics, mechatronics and mechanics. Therefore, it makes sense to train the engineers in Sønderborg, exactly where they are needed.