If special circumstances have negatively affected your upper secondary school grades you can apply for dispensation. In your application for admission, you must submit documentation showing that your grades were negatively affected by exceptional circumstances no later than 15 March at noon. 

To obtain dispensation due to exceptional circumstances, you must demonstrate exceptional circumstances with supporting evidence.

Examples of such circumstances include:

• Critical or chronic illness
• Physical or mental disability
• Accident resulting in injury or permanent damage
• Illness or death in your immediate family
• Uncompensated dyslexia or acalculia.

In the application that you upload to optagelse.dk, you must explain:

• The reason you are applying for a dispensation
• What exceptional circumstances have arisen during upper secondary school
• Whether the circumstances applied to an isolated incident or a short or long period of time
• What impact the exceptional circumstances have had on your grades and overall GPA on your qualifying examination.

At optagelse.dk, you must upload documentation for the circumstances you have described in the application. The documentation must be translated into English or Danish. Examples of relevant documentation include:

• Medical certificate or medical record relating to injury, accident, short-term or long-term illness
• Medical certificate or other relevant professional documentation for accidents, deaths or particularly serious illnesses of close relatives
• Specialist opinion in connection with, for instance, tests for dyslexia, acalculia or disabilities
• Statement from psychologist/psychiatrist or transcript of medical record
• Statement from student counsellor, subject teacher or principal of the school
• Police report with relevant information on the persons involved
• Grade sheets from the last three years of upper secondary school.

Please be aware: 

• Aalborg University rarely grants dispensation and that dispensation is not a guarantee of you being enrolled.
• That the dispensation is solely for entry restricted programmes.
• If you take a supplementary course in a required admission subject, your grade in that subject will not be administratively increased, even if you receive a lower grade after completing the supplementary course. 

If you do not hold a qualifying upper secondary school exam it may be possible for you to apply for admission with special permission. You must submit documentation (diplomas) showing that you possess general as well as specific academic qualifications equivalent to those of an applicant holding a qualifying exam. The documentation must be in original language and English.

If you are granted special permission, your application for admission will be treated on an equal footing with the other applications. Hence, you are not guaranteed admission. Be aware that you must still meet the specific entry requirements for the programme. 

You must apply for admission before 15 March, noon.

If you do not fulfill a specific entry requirement, but have academic qualifications comparable to the specific entry requirement you can apply for a dispensation. 

To your application at www.optagelse.dk you must upload documentation for the academic qualifications, i.e. Diplomas, test results or certificates (including course descriptions and information about examination). The documentation must be in original language and in English.

You must apply for dispensation before 15 March, noon.

If Aalborg University grants you dispensation, it will only be valid for your application to Aalborg University and only for the programmes you have applied for. Be aware that a dispensation is not a guarantee of enrolment.

Usually, it is not possible to submit an application for admission or documentation to your application after the given deadlines.

We only grant dispensation in the case of special circumstances such as unexpected and urgent serious illness around the time of the deadline. The circumstances must be documented with a doctor’s note or similar. The documentation must be in English.

We do not consider the following as special circumstances: 

• Delays
• Oversight of deadline
• Lacking knowledge of the deadlines
• IT- or logon problems

Applicants who have completed, or will complete, a Danish or foreign master’s degree prior to the start of studies may only be admitted to a new bachelor’s, professional bachelor’s, or master’s degree programme if places are available. 

If you hold a foreign master’s degree, the master’s degree rule applies only if your degree is equivalent in level to a Danish master’s degree. Read more about the assessment of foreign qualifications.

If there are more qualified applicants holding a master’s degree than available places, applicants will be ranked according to the grade point average from the qualifying upper secondary examination.

If you are offered admission before completing your master’s degree but subsequently complete it, you may not commence the new programme unless places are available.

Exemption from the rule

Aalborg University may grant an exemption from the master’s degree rule if it is credibly documented and demonstrated that, due to exceptional circumstances, you are no longer able to use your master’s degree on the labour market.

Each application is assessed individually and on the basis of the specific circumstances of the applicant. If an exemption is granted, the applicant will be assessed on equal terms with applicants who do not hold a master’s degree, provided that the admission requirements are met.

When assessing applications for exemption, we consider the nature and extent of the documented exceptional circumstances.

Definition of exceptional circumstances

An exceptional circumstance must:

• Be unforeseeable and beyond the applicant’s control
• Not reasonably have been avoidable
• Be of an extraordinary character
• Be of such scope or sudden intensity that the applicant is unable to use their master’s degree professionally.

Circumstances that do not give rise to an exemption

Exemptions are not granted on the basis of:

• Changed career wishes, interest in another programme, or a change of profession
• Non-work-related illness
• The applicant having chosen not to make use of their master’s degree
• Changes in legislation
• Labour market conditions, such as unemployment.

As part of the assessment, it is taken into account that most master’s degree programmes provide general qualifications and competencies that can be applied in a variety of job functions. Consequently, unemployment within specific sectors or changing professional interests is not considered an exceptional circumstance that may justify an exemption.

If Aalborg University assesses that the applicant’s opportunities to use the master’s degree have not been exhausted, the application for exemption will be rejected.

How to apply for an exemption

Applicants seeking admission to a bachelor’s degree programme must upload the application for exemption and all supporting documentation to www.optagelse.dk no later than 15 March at 12:00 noon.

Documentation to be uploaded

The application must include:

• A copy of the master’s degree certificate
• A statement explaining why the master’s degree cannot be used on the labour market, including:
  - The reason for applying for an exemption
  - The date on which loss of work capacity was established
  - The exceptional circumstances that applied at the time the loss of work capacity was established
• Documentation supporting the information provided.

Examples of relevant documentation include:

• Medical certificates
• Medical records or records from sundhed.dk
• Statements from medical specialists

Documentation requirements

Please note that documentation issued by professionals must generally include:

• The applicant’s name and CPR number or date of birth 
• The professional’s details: name, CVR number, provider number, signature, stamp, and date of issue 
• Information on when the first contact with a doctor or psychologist related to the matter took place 
• A professional assessment of how the circumstances affect the applicant’s ability to use the education on the labour market 
• A clear indication of whether the professional assessment is based on the professional’s own examination or on information provided by the applicant.

Previous applications

Decisions apply only to the admission round for which the application has been submitted.

If the applicant applies again in a subsequent admission round, the full application process must be completed again, and relevant documentation must be uploaded.