Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)

Everyone speaks English very well in Denmark! The problems are more related to social interactions. At university, as well as when interacting with the authorities (or public services), it is not a problem at all to rely exclusively on English.

The university is excellent and I believe that during the two-year MSc. program I enabled myself to become a better, more skilled engineer. However, people contemplating coming to Denmark should consider a very important factor relating to life in Denmark: Your contact will almost always be restricted to other foreigners. It is very hard to get to know Danes. More disturbing than anything else, was the overall attitude of many Danes to foreigners. it sickening to read and hear on a daily basis what Danish people think about people coming from other countries. Most did not want to have anything to do with them. The situation is considerably worse if your appearance is non-Nordic. Arabs, along with any darker skinned persons, are in particular perceived as trouble makers, as parasites, as useless people. The racist and prejudicial terms used by too many Danes to describe their attitude would not be acceptable in most countries! Prejudice, if not sheer hatred, is evident in many spheres. Some clubs will not hesitate to filter out, at the entrance, people who don't look Danish. Even at the university, foreigners who wander by mistake to a party which had not been designated for the "International students", will feel very fast how their presence is unwanted. Many people would not like to rent out rooms to foreigners. In more extreme cases, you will be told to "go home". It is a shocking revelation to many of the longer-term visitors to his country. However, I have never encountered violent (in the physical sense) manifestations of hatred of foreigners.

There are jobs as teaching assistants and the pay is very good. It is very hard to find a student job outside university - if you don't speak Danish.

The housing situation in greater Copenhagen is bad. It is very hard to find accomodation for a reasonable price. People simply have to take whatever comes first (use personal contacts if possible) and move on from there.

Studentenhuset in central Copenhagen. Especially on Wednesdays ("International" evening) and Thursday nights (often a live band is there. Of quite good quality)