The NSAC Roadmap

Postgraduate degree

Do you want to do your whole postgraduate degree abroad?

Whether you’ve taken your undergraduate at home or abroad, you might be thinking about going abroad for your postgraduate degree. Here are a few things to get you started on everything from destinations, student life, application processes and funding. It is important to keep in mind that tuition fees, funding opportunities and selection criteria vary widely from country to country, but for postgraduate degrees it is often easier to find funding through grants and scholarships.

Where do you want to go?

The first thing to narrow down is where you want to go! Here there are a few things that are important to consider as you run through our guide. What languages do you want to study in? Even outside English speaking countries some universities offer English language degrees. What type of degree are you interested in? Sometimes overall rankings can be useful, but make sure you check different universities’ provisions specifically in your field. What is your budget? Countries vary drastically in price of both tuition and housing, and this is important to look into. However, often scholarships and bursaries are available, so don’t immediately discard options with a high price tag. Do you want to study outside of the EU? This can make things more complicated in terms of VISAs and work permits, but don’t let that disuade you. City or small town? Are you looking for a campus experience? All of these things make it easier to narrow down your options!

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General timeline

How far away are you from starting university? Here’s a rough guide for keeping track of research, applications, funding and deadlines!

More than twelve months before

Do your research. Browse through our guide, and of course attend the NSAC Conference, where you’ll be introduced to university reps, current students, recent graduates and here great talks, panels and get the chance to ask all of your questions!

Twelve months before

Get an idea of where you want to apply, and write down the application deadlines for your choices. You can apply in as many different places as you want, but deadlines vary drastically! The earliest are usually Oxford and Cambridge who have their deadlines in October, but others accept applications as late as April. This is the time to get an idea of your deadlines, tests, language requirements and that kind of thing. This is also a good time to attend the Project Access Bootcamp, where you can get specialised help with your application.

Six months before

You may start receiving your acceptances and rejections, and it’s time to start making choices. Furthermore, even if you haven’t been accepted yet it is worth looking into funding. In Denmark, to get your SU while you are abroad, you need to get your course accepted onto the SU Fast track list, which can take a few months. You can read about the process here.

The last few months

If you’ve been accepted, it’s time to make the final arrangements! This includes housing, visas, banks and all the other practical matters that come with starting your life abroad. You can find information about these things under our country specific pages!

Funding

As we’ve noted, financing your degree varies drastically from place to place, and funding opportunities can be everything from academic scholarships to need based aid and study jobs. However, it is often easier to obtain funding for postgraduate degrees than undergraduate from Danish grants and scholarships. For each country and area we’ve added a more specific funding guide!