Prestigious universities and higher education institutions have teamed up to make the Øresund region the largest human IT resource area in Scandinavia.
Copenhagen is the educational centre of Denmark and the Øresund
region. It holds prestigious universities and higher education
institutions that team up to make the Øresund region the largest
human IT resource area in Scandinavia. Overall, these institutions
have approximately:
- 10,000 researchers
- 142,000 students
- 10,000 students enrolled in specialised IT-programs
A high level of expertise and competence within the IT education
system has created a knowledge foundation that forms an ideal
environment for the exploitation of new technologies and innovative
business opportunities. This knowledge base has been consolidated
by the long-standing Danish tradition of collaborating with
educational institutions all over the world. Research and
educational institutions in Denmark are also used to work closely
with the local and international business communities.
Danish research at the top
An indisputable evidence of the outstanding educational and
research system in Denmark is its scientific production. A report
published in August 2001 by the European Commission (Towards a
European Research Area – Key Figures 2001) reveals that Danish
researchers lead the world’s ranking of highly cited papers.
According to the study, 1.62% of the total number of scientific
publications produced by Danish researchers was among highly cited
papers (1997-1999). Denmark’s position is considerably higher than
the North American (1.27%) and above the European average
(1.20%).
Read the report published by the European Commission
"
Towards a European Research Area – Key Figures 2001".
Denmark also performs remarkably well in relation to the number
of highly cited publications per 1 million inhabitants (1995-1997).
The country has 69 articles, quite above Sweden, which ranks second
on the list with 58 highly cited articles per 1 million
inhabitants. In comparison, the US has 50 articles while the
European figure is 31.
Universities ensure expertise
Co-operation among academic and research institutions and
between them and the private sector has been one of the strategies
adopted to guarantee cutting-edge teaching and research results. An
example of such co-operation is the company Crystal Fibre,
established in the year 2000 thanks to a joint project carried out
by the Danish group NKT and the Technical University of Denmark.
Crystal Fibre design, manufacture and market photonic crystal fibre
(PCF), also known as micro structured fibres.
Investments in the educational and research institutions have
not only provided qualified human resources for the private sector,
but have also made the sector more dynamic by creating conditions
for the emergence of new companies. The establishment of some of
these companies has been facilitated by the support given by
science parks, which have created conditions for close
relationships between the industry and the research environment.
The biggest Danish science park, Symbion, located in the Greater
Copenhagen area, hosts 85 innovative companies, and more than half
of them operate in the area of IT and telecom.
Below, you can read more about some of the most important Danish
educational and research institutions in Greater Copenhagen:
- Technical University of Denmark
- IT University of Copenhagen
- Roskilde University
- University of Copenhagen
- Copenhagen Business School
- Engineering College of Copenhagen
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark – DTU – embraces most of the
engineering disciplines in Bachelor, Masters and Ph.D. levels. It
has 6,000 Bachelor and Master students and 600 Ph.D. students
dedicated to a variety of fields such as communications technology
and nanotechnology.
As any modern technological university, DTU carries out
international co-operation activities routinely. Every year, the
institution receives 400 foreign students, who attend
English-taught courses, and has 400 of its own students abroad
doing courses at foreign universities. In addition, the University
offers a comprehensive continuing education program with several
courses in English.
16 institutes and a number of major independent centres provide
the University’s research and teaching, which is driven by the
dynamic collaboration with different kinds of organisations within
several fields of research. These centres have been playing an
important role in the development of IT technologies and human
resources in Denmark.
Two of the most important of these centres are COM and MIC.
- MIC
The Centre of Microelectronics – MIC – is a national centre for
research on advanced microtechnologies in semiconductor
materials. MIC was founded in 1990 with the objective to
contribute to the education of engineers, carrying out research on
an internationally competitive level in co-operation with the
Danish industry. In 2005, MIC had approximately 90 employees,
including 45 Ph.D. students.
MIC offers courses, seminars, Masters and Ph.D. studies. In its
first decade, the centre educated over 100 candidates at Master and
Ph.D. levels. MIC puts a large effort into experimental courses
with clean room processing, and its curriculum aims at educating
scientists and engineers to the highest level. Its scientific
production has received international and industrial recognition,
which is reflected by its 29 articles in scientific international
journals, 27 works in conference proceedings, and 9 patent
applications.
The collaboration with Danish industry was established from day
one through a joint team of researchers from DTU, and five
companies established MIC’s research and educational platform.
- COM
Research Centre COM develops research in the areas of glass
components and materials, optoelectronics, optical transmission
systems, coding, communication networks and multimedia. COM has
more than 125 staff members including 45 Ph.D. students and a
technical and administrative support unit of 10 people. The
institution graduates about 15 Ph.D. students and 50 MSc students
every year and has an increasing number of patents.
The Centre collaborates closely with Danish and foreign
companies on state of the art development projects. The Department
of Telecommunication, created as a joint project between COM and
the telecom TDC, is an example of such collaboration. Other
examples are Crystal Fibre and Cisilias; companies that were
established by the Danish group NKT based on research applications
developed by scientists at COM.
IT University of Copenhagen
In the summer of 2000, one of the youngest Danish higher
education institutions, the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU),
awarded postgraduate certificates to 40 students of its
inaugurating class. The IT University of Copenhagen, which started
in August 1999 with 143 students, has now (2005) more
than 1,300 enrolled students.
The institution was created as an initiative to foster new
candidates for the fast-growing IT industry in Denmark, and to
consolidate the Danish competence in this area by undertaking
theoretical and applied research.
The ITU offers a range of courses in IT including Ph.D.
programs, six full-time Master of Science courses, four part-time
Master courses and one part-time graduate diploma course. The ITU
covers different aspects of information technology such as
electronic business, media and software development, and
IT-business impact.
The research area of the institution is divided into four areas:
innovation, digital aesthetics and communication, theory, and
design and use of information technology. The area of innovation,
for example, currently concentrates its activities on data security
and compression computer vision and graphics, interaction
technology, and software technology.
In 2004, the ITU moved to the new urban town Ørestaden, which is
located between the Copenhagen city centre and the airport. In
the new facilities, the university will be able to increase
its capacity to 2,500 students.
Roskilde University
Researchers and especially students from abroad are a big part
of everyday life at Roskilde University, established in 1972.
Roskilde University has made a conscious effort to become a place
where both the environment and the study programs have an
international content.
For example, the Department of Communication, Journalism and
Computer Science offers a Ph.D. program in Design and Management of
Information Technology in co-operation with other Danish and
foreign institutions. In addition, the department offers three
Master programs covering different aspects of IT. The department’s
program of studies is characterised by its integration with other
academic areas such as social and natural sciences.
The department has expanded its activities considerably in the
last couple of years.
www.dat.ruc.dk
University of Copenhagen
At the University of Copenhagen, IT research and studies have
mainly been concentrated in the Department of Computer Science,
also known as DIKU. The Department offers undergraduate, graduate
and Ph.D. level courses and has about 450 students. It carries out
research in several areas such as image analysis, distributed
systems, logic programming and databases, musical informatics,
semantics of programming language and algorithmic, and
optimisation.
A recent initiative was the creation of the Centre of IT
Competencies in Natural Sciences (NIK), affiliated to the Faculty
of Science. The centre will carry on research on IT teaching
methods and the network society, and issues such as the role
of network technologies for research, education and
communication within the natural science disciplines.
University of Copenhagen –
www.ku.dk
Department of Computer Science –
www.diku.dk
Centre of IT Competencies in Natural Sciences –
www.nik.ku.dk
Copenhagen Business School
The Department for Informatics at Copenhagen Business School
(CBS) is one of the leading research and teaching institutions in
Denmark in the field of information systems within the business and
the public spheres. The organisation has a multi-disciplinary
approach and embraces theories and methods from several fields such
as information-systems research, business administration, computer
science, organisation studies, political science, business
economics and educational studies.
The department’s research activities are organised in three
research groups: IT System Developments, Human Computer
Interaction, and Management and Organisation of IT. The Department
also hosts two important research centres – the Centre for Research
on Information Technology in Policy Organisations (CIPS), and the
newly founded Centre for Electronic Commerce (CEC).
The Centre for Electronic Commerce carries out research relating
to all types of IT-based interaction between independent economic
units, be it business-to-business, business-to-consumer, or
business-to-government. The Centre offers MBA and MSc programs.
The Centre for Research on Information Technology in Policy
Organisations focuses on IT-related changes on individual,
organisational and societal levels. The research concentrates on
implementation issues, impacts, best practices, and learning
opportunities/development issues.
In addition, the Department of Informatics has Business
Administration and Computer Science studies at undergraduate,
postgraduate and Ph.D. levels. In 2004, more than 700 students were
enrolled in its Bachelor and Master programmes. The organisation
also offers a Master in electronic business (in collaboration with
the IT University of Copenhagen), a Master in ICT and Learning (in
collaboration with four Danish universities), and a MBA in Global
eManagement.
www.cbs.dk/departments/inf
The Engineering College of Copenhagen
The Engineering College of Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest
engineering college with six engineering studies programs and about
2,300 students. In 2000, the institution began offering an
undergraduate course in IT Engineering, which is intended to give
students the ability to handle tasks related to the development and
use of IT technologies. The programmes are in general implemented
in close co-operation with Danish and foreign companies, which
enable the students to move rapidly towards achieving their career
objectives. The institution Department for Continuing Education
also offers two postgraduate courses.
http://www.ihk.dk
