Despite the pandemic and restrictions, almost 300 new students embarked on their 3½-year-long programmes for a Bachelor of Engineering at Aarhus University last week. Six different programmes are being offered with a winter start at Aarhus University, and they all saw growth in the number of students admitted, except for the Bachelor of Engineering in electronics, with the same number as last year of 26 new students. The largest increase was for the Software Technology programme, which has risen from an intake of 40 new students in winter 2020 to 70 in 2021. This is an increase of no less than 75 per cent. Another big jump was for the Mechanical Engineering programme, which has an intake of 43 per cent more students.

"Technology will play a crucial role in solving the problems facing the world. So society and the business community need all the engineers we can educate. That’s why I’m so pleased to see that the significant growth in the number of new engineering students we experienced in last year’s summer admissions is continuing," says Eskild Holm Nielsen, dean of the Faculty of Technical Sciences.

AU Engineering welcomes the vast majority of its engineering students in the summer, when both MSc and BSc programmes start. In the summer of 2020, 1,100 new students started an engineering degree programme at Aarhus University.

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Virtual study start

One of the new students on the popular Bachelor of Engineering in Software Technology programme is 23-year-old Mia-Louise Birk. She has just moved to Aarhus from Odense and has experienced a somewhat unusual study start because coronavirus restrictions mean it has been virtual.

"When I heard that my study start was going to be over Zoom, my first thought was "Oh no!". But it has actually gone better than I feared. The student adviser has done a lot to help us get to know our fellow students, even though we can't meet each other physically. We were divided into smaller groups, and presenting ourselves to 15 people was not as daunting as it would have been to 70. That was very good thinking," says Mia-Louise.

One of the reasons why she chose an engineering programme was that it is more hands-on than many other programmes at the university. Therefore, she is also looking forward to society opening up, so that she can enjoy a more ordinary student life.

"Some things just can't be done on camera. For example, we have a workshop course now at the beginning of the programme, where we have to work with wires and cables. And I think that would be somewhat easier if it wasn't online," says Mia-Louise.