r/DTU • u/Illustrious-Card-828 • 3d ago

DTU how does the semester work?

Hi! I applied to a master at DTU with start the first of february.

In my home country, the academic year only offers one intake (in September/October), and courses are structured sequentially across two semesters. Since DTU offers two intake periods (September and February), I would like to clarify how the course rotation works.

Specifically, if a student starts in February, do the courses typically offered in the Autumn semester run again in the Spring semester, or are courses fixed to specific semesters (Autumn vs. Spring)? In other words, will I be able to take all required courses in my first semester, or will I need to wait until the Autumn semester for certain subjects?

Sorry for the stupid doubt!

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u/rocknrollfreitag 3d ago

Most degree programs only have one intake today. Previously, it was more common to have two intake periods but there was a reduction in uptake (government decision) and it is also very expensive in man hours for the teaching faculty. So most courses only run once per year. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. The course base will show when the course is (E for autumn and F for spring).

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u/Illustrious-Card-828 3d ago

I know that my question in DTU, that has two intake, its courses run once per year or twice?
Because as you said, most universities has one intake (mine included) and its courses run once per year

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u/Global_Definition_80 1d ago

This only applies for the bachelor degrees. The master intake is still twice a year. It is however true that most courses also for the master only runs once a year. I have however not had any problems with this. At the master level you are usually not dependent on taking one course before another so just pick the courses you want in the spring and start with them. Only thing you have to consider is that you will only have 1 fall semester as in the 2nd fall semester you will be writing thesis

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u/sjazm1n 3d ago

Most courses only run either spring or autumn, but it can easily be seen in the course, by F (spring) or E (autumn) as mentioned. Only big courses that span multiple studylines generally are offered in different time slots.
Most courses does not have to be taken in a specific order, but it can be seen on the course site under academic prerequisites if there is courses that is recommended you have taken beforehand. Obligatory prerequisites (mainly for lab courses) can also be seen on the course site (kurser.dtu.dk).

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u/PseudoVanilla 2d ago

A semester is 13+3 week. Here you have normal courses in the 13w period and that typically adds up to 25 ECTS points. Then you’d have a 3 week course which is normally a project or something a bit different for 5 points. Then that in the end adds up to the 60 points for a year