More women want an IT education

Interest in pursuing an IT education is on the rise among young women. In just two years, the share of women among students admitted to IT University of Copenhagen's bachelor programmes has risen from 25 to 34 percent.

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Written 27 July, 2018 16:46 by Vibeke Arildsen

More female students will be in the crowd when the IT University of Copenhagen welcomes the class of 2018 after summer vacation. The share of women offered admission to the university's bachelor programmes has increased steadily in recent years and is now 34 percent, this year's admission figures show.

Two programmes are particularly experiencing a surge of female students: Data Science, where 30 percent of the upcoming class are women, an increase of six percentage points, and Global Business Informatics, where 46 percent of the future students are women, an increase of 15 percentage points compared to last year. 

Mads Tofte, Vice Chancellor at ITU is pleased with this development, which he attributes to ITU’s efforts to attract more female applicants.

"We cannot accept that women are reduced to being merely users of technology. That is why we have launched a series of initiatives such as IT camps and coding cafés targeted to young women. These initiatives have proven to be very effective," he says.

Rising interest in IT subjects

The overall interest in getting an IT education is also increasing. This year, ITU received 11 percent more applicants to its four bachelor programmes, which range from technical subjects such as Software Development and Data Science to programmes that combine IT with design and business.

The Vice Chancellor is happy that young people are increasingly turning to the IT subjects:

"The digitization of our society creates the need for many more IT specialists, so it is very good that young people are aware of the good opportunities an IT education provides. I’m particularly pleased that we have received 185 first priority applications for the Data Science programme, which got 138 applicants last year. Every time we talk to employers, they talk about a desperate need for more IT specialists," says Mads Tofte.

According to a government's forecast, Denmark will lack 19,000 IT specialists by 2030.

790 applicants selected ITU as their first priority this year, of which 382 are offered admission. In all four bachelor programmes, approximately every other first priority applicant is admitted.

Admitted students, ITU bachelor programmes 2018

Further information

Vibeke Arildsen, Press Officer, phone 2555 0447, email viar@itu.dk