Studieprøven i Dansk som Andetsprog: Grades Danish Universities Ask For

Danish-taught programmes at Danish universities ask for Dansk A, Danish at the highest upper-secondary level (at DTU’s diplomingeniør programmes it is a separate language requirement at the same level). An applicant with a foreign qualifying exam has usually not taken Dansk A, although a Danish subject in an IB diploma can count, so the universities name other ways to document it, and the one they all name is Studieprøven i dansk som andetsprog [official: the six pages in the table below]. What they do not agree on is the grade. There is no national list, so this page reads the universities’ own pages one by one and prints what each says — and, just as important, what each does not say.

If you have not met the test itself yet, start with the guide in English. How the three grades are given and what counts as a pass is in the pass rule: at least 02 in each of reading, writing and oral, with reading and writing passed in the same term. That is the floor. Several programmes ask for more.

From the universities’ own pages, read 13 October 2026. “6 of 8” is our count of the eight Danish universities.

Five of the pages we read, at three universities, attach a second condition to Studieprøven. Copenhagen’s bachelor page says that if you document your Danish with Studieprøven, you must at the same time document that you passed mother-tongue teaching at the highest level in your upper-secondary education. Aarhus says the test counts as Danish A “in combination with passed mother tongue at the highest level”. Aalborg calls it a precondition (forudsætning) for recognising Studieprøven and explains what mother tongue means here: the teaching language of your foreign exam, so that someone with a German Abitur needs German at the highest level [official: KU, AU and AAU pages].

Our reading: the pages do not say why, but the condition suggests that Dansk A is more than a language level, and that the universities take your first-language subject as evidence of the rest. In practice it means two documents, not one: the Studieprøven certificate and your upper-secondary certificate showing the language subject. If your school system had no such subject at a level the university can convert, ask the admissions office in writing before you pay for the test. We cannot tell you what each university accepts instead, because the pages do not say.

For master’s programmes the admission order says it directly. BEK nr 40 of 20 January 2025, §29: “Universitetet kan kræve, at adgang til en kandidatuddannelse forudsætter, at ansøgeren har gennemført dansk på gymnasialt A-niveau. Universitetet kan beslutte, at studieprøven i dansk kan erstatte dansk A som adgangskrav.” The university may require Dansk A and may let Studieprøven replace it. Stk. 2 adds that it may require a certain average, or a minimum grade in some or all parts — which is why you see both “7 in each part” and “7,0 on average” in the table [official].

The same paragraph gives you some protection: setting or tightening such a requirement must be announced by 1 February, at least one year before it takes effect. So a higher grade should not appear from one month to the next. It is still worth saving a copy of the admission page on the day you decide to take the test.

Studieprøven is held twice a year, and the oral is some weeks after the written day, so the question is which sitting gives you a result in time.

Take a bachelor start in September 2027 with the 15 March 2027 deadline. The winter 2026 oral window closes on 15 December 2026, 90 days before 15 March 2027 (our arithmetic), but registration for that sitting closed on 31 August 2026. The summer 2027 sitting has its registration deadline on 1 March 2027, its written day on 10 May and an oral window that closes on 25 June 2027 — 102 days after the 15 March deadline (our arithmetic). A candidate who starts now is therefore, for September 2027, in §9 territory: only a university that accepts documentation after the deadline can use a summer 2027 result.

Whether they do differs. KU’s master’s page is strict: from the September 2026 intake it has common documentation deadlines, the university must receive the documentation before the application deadline, and “En sprogtest, som er taget efter datoen for ansøgningsfristen, vil ikke blive accepteret” — a language test taken after the deadline date will not be accepted. It adds that the waiting time for a result is your responsibility [official: KU]. We did not find the corresponding sentence on the other pages, so ask each university, and get the answer in writing. SIRI’s pages do not say how many days after the oral the certificate is issued.

A requirement of 7 in each part changes the preparation, because the grade 7 has its own description. In SIRI’s assessment guide a 7 in writing is “den gode præstation”: facts conveyed mostly suitably, explanations presented clearly but in a few places without reasons, a coherent and mostly clear argument, and errors that bother the reading slightly without hindering understanding. The answer SIRI publishes as its passed sample is graded 7 in that guide, so you can read exactly what the level looks like. The essay guide sets two texts of ours on either side of it, and the examples guide prints the 12, 7 and 02 descriptions for writing and for the oral.

Reading is the part where a target grade is hardest to plan for, because SIRI does not publish how many points give which grade; it sets the table after each sitting [official: SIRI complaints guide]. All you can do is score as many points as you can on the sample test; there is no published threshold to aim at. And remember that a missed target in one part cannot be repaired by the others: where a page says “in each part”, 12, 12 and 4 does not meet a requirement of 7.

One more route exists if you miss the grade: resitting. A part you passed with too low a grade for your programme is still a passed part, and the test rules on resits are written for parts that were not passed. Whether you may retake a passed part to raise it is not something SIRI’s candidate pages state; ask the language centre before you count on it. The resit rules that are published are in the pass rule guide.

Not sure Studieprøven is the right test at all? For citizenship, permanent residence and healthcare authorisation the answer can be Prøve i Dansk 3 instead; Studieprøven or PD3 goes through each purpose. And when the target is fixed, the self-study plan counts the weeks back from your written day.