Master of Science (MSc) in Neuroscience

About the programme

The programme gives you the qualifications to become an experienced neuroscientist with highly specialised knowledge of the cellular structures of the brain, their connections, behaviours, and higher brain functions. Through research-based lectures, journal clubs, workshops, thematic reports, and an extensive thesis project, you will get state of the art insights and be challenged to find new applications in the field of neuroscience.

What makes the programme at UCPH unique?

The programme offers a broad education in neuroscience, covering topics from basic neuroscience to higher cognitive functioning. The research-based lectures cover new scientific discoveries either from the teachers’ own research or from cutting edge literature. The programme is unique as it covers all aspects of neuroscience, and it has strong collaboration with pharmaceutical and med-tech industries in Denmark.

What specialisations does the field of study offer?

A major part of the programme is the mandatory neuroscience courses “Cells and circuits” and “Higher brain functions”. You will also learn about scientific technologies in neuroscience in the course “Experimental design in neuroscience.” The courses cover all aspects of neuroscience and introduce you to the major technologies applied in this discipline. Elective courses give you opportunities to learn applied neuroscience.

Admission and application

To apply for admission to this master's degree programme, you must have completed a qualifying bachelor’s degree or a similar Danish or international degree programme which is assessed to be relevant. Apply for admission via the application portal.

Below, you can read more about admission requirements and which documents to upload in the application portal.

Click here to submit your application

The application portal is open: 16 January – 1 March (EU applicants) and 15 November – 15 January (non EU applicants)

Academic admission requirements

Here you'll find the different academic requirements depending on which qualifying degree you hold.

There are no bachelor’s degrees that give legal right of admission to the MSc in Neuroscience.

If you hold one of the bachelor’s degrees listed below from a Danish university, you are considered to meet all academic admission requirements and have direct access to apply to the master’s degree programme in Neuroscience:

Biology
Biochemistry
Biology-Biotechnology
Biomedicine
Medicine
Medicinal Biology
Molecular Biomedicine
Molecular Medicine
Molecular Biology
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Veterinary Medicine
Cognitive Data Science with a specialisation in Neuroscience

Degrees with specific course requirements

If you hold one of the bachelor’s degrees listed below, you are qualified for admission if you fulfil specific course requirements:

Medicine with Industrial Specialisation
Pharmaceutical Sciences

In order to qualify for admission, you must have passed 30 ECTS within 3 of the following 4 fields:

Cell biology
Biochemistry
Genetics
Molecular Biology

Please note that having a bachelor’s degree that fulfil the admission requirements does not guarantee you admission to the programme.

If you have a bachelor’s degree, professional bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a Danish or international universities you are qualified for admission if your programme is within the following areas:

Health sciences
Life sciences
Biological sciences

Furthermore, you must have obtained at least 30 ECTS within cell biology, physiology, molecular biomedicine and/or neurobiology.

Please note that having a bachelor’s degree that fulfil the admission requirements does not guarantee you admission to the programme.

You must have earned your bachelor’s degree within a maximum of 5 years prior to the start of the first semester of the master’s programme, e.g. for the intake in the autumn of 2025, you must have graduated by September 2020 or thereafter. In exceptional circumstances the Admissions Committee may waive the graduation year requirement.

If your bachelor’s degree is too old, you can apply for an exemption from the graduation year requirement. If you choose to apply for an exemption, you must submit the following documents along with your application for admission:

A letter explaining how you have maintained your academic qualifications since graduation (e.g. relevant work, internships, further studies)
Relevant documentation (e.g work contracts, diplomas etc).

If you already have a master's degree from Denmark or another country, you can, in principle, only be admitted to a new degree programme if there are places available on the programme for which you are applying for admission.

When we assess whether you meet the admission requirements for the master's degree program, Danish legislation only allows us to assess your bachelor's degree. Consequently, you cannot study supplementary courses between bachelor's and master's degree programs in order to meet the admission requirements.

If you have passed courses/projects before you complete the qualifying bachelor's degree, these can be included in the assessment, even though they are not part of the bachelor's degree program.

It applies to courses/projects you have taken as single subjects and courses/projects you have taken as part of another study program.
A maximum of 30 ECTS credits of these courses/projects may be included.

Language requirements

Applicants to a master’s programme taught in English must document their English language proficiency in accordance with the language requirements for admission.

If you have legal right of admission to the programme that you are applying for, you are not required to document your proficiency in English.

If you have completed your upper secondary education in Denmark, you must upload a copy of your upper secondary education diploma as documentation for your English proficiency.

All other applicants must document qualifications equivalent to the Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B’ or ‘English level A’.

Your documentation must be valid at the application deadline that applies to you.

Citizens from a country outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland: 15 January
Citizens from Denmark, EU, EEA or Switzerland: 1 March

We accept the following ways of documenting English qualifications equivalent to the Danish upper secondary school ‘English level B’ or ‘English level A’:

You have completed an upper secondary school degree, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in English in one of the following countries

Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or USA

You must upload a copy or scan of your official school diploma as documentation.

The degree must be a minimum of 2 years of studies. A student exchange semester/year is not sufficient documentation for English proficiency.

You have studied an upper secondary school diploma in Denmark or one of the Nordic countries.

You must upload a copy or scan of your transcript from a Danish upper secondary school to document that you have passed English level B or higher.

If you have passed a Nordic entrance examination with an English level comparable to the Danish level B or higher, you must upload your transcript that documents the subjects you have passed.

You must upload a copy or scan of your transcript to document that you have passed one of the following levels:

English A1, A2 or B, higher level (HL),
English A1 or A2 standard level (SL)
English A Literature or English A Language and Literature, higher Level (HL) (from 2013)
English A Literature or English A Language and Literature, standard Level (SL) (from 2013)
English B, standard level (SL)

You must upload a copy or scan of your transcript to document that you have passed the course:

English language 1 (LI), English language 2 (LII) or English language 3 (LIII) with a minimum score of 50%

The EB must be passed at one of the European Schools placed in Copenhagen, Bruxelles, Luxembourg, Mol, München, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Varese or Alicante.

You must upload your transcript from the educational institution as documentation that you have passed:

Danish upper secondary school 'English level B' (Engelsk B) or
Danish upper secondary school ‘English level A’ (Engelsk A).

You must upload a copy or scan of your transcript to document that you have passed the course:

English Leistungsfach (LF) OR
Erhöhtes Anforderungsniveau (eA) OR
Kernfach (KF) OR
Profilfach/Profilgebendes Fach (PgF)

All with a maximum score of 4 (Ausreichend).

You must document that you have passed one of the following accepted tests:

IELTS Academic (taken at an IELTS test centre, online, or Home Edition)
TOEFL iBT, TOEFL iBT paper edition or TOEFL iBT Home Edition
Cambridge Advanced English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Deadlines for sending your documentation

Your test must be valid at the application deadline that applies to you:

Deadline for citizens from a country outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland: 15 January
Deadline for citizens from Denmark, EU, EEA or Switzerland: 1 March

Your application will be rejected if you have not provided sufficient documentation for English proficiency by your application deadline.

The IELTS and TOEFL results are only valid if they are not older than 2 years counted from the application deadline. There is no limitation for validity for the Cambridge tests.

Documentation by passed English proficiency test

Name of test	Minimum score	Your options for giving us the needed information
IELTS (academic)	6.5 (overall test score)	Upload your test score sheet in the application portal. If you have difficulties uploading the test score sheet, please email us the sheet, and we will verify it online.
IELTS Home Edition	6.5 (overall test score) Only overall score will be considered.
TOEFL Internet-based test (IBT)	83	Upload your test score sheet in the application portal. If you have difficulties uploading the test score sheet, please email us the sheet, and we will verify it online.
TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition	83
ITP TOEFL-test	560
Cambridge Advanced (CAE)	Passed at level C1 or C2	You must inform your test centre that the University of Copenhagen is allowed to verify your test score results online. You must upload documentation which includes your Statement of Results number or Reference number.
Cambridge Proficiency	Passed at level C1 or C2

Application deadlines

Study start in September

1 March at 23:59

Application deadline for Danish applicants and applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
Open for applications from 16 January. You will receive a reply by 10 June.

15 January at 23:59

Application deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
Open for applications from 15 November. You will receive a reply by 1 May.

How to apply

Choose your category and read how you apply for admission. You can also find information about deadlines and documentation requirements.

Please note that you must also select according to your citizenship:

Citizen from Denmark, EU, EEA or Switzerland (EU)
Citizen from countries outside EU, EEA or Switzerland (NON-EU)

International bachelor's degree - EU

Danish bachelor's degree - EU

International bachelor's degree - Non-EU

Danish bachelor's degree - Non-EU

Apply as a current- or former student

How we assess your application

The programme accepts a maximum of 30 students each year. One third of the seats may be reserved for students from countries outside the EU/EAA.

Selection criteria

If more than 30 applicants fulfil the admission requirements, the applicants will be prioritised based on the following (listed in prioritised order):

Documentation of relevant bachelor’s degree including courses, internships or work within the field of neuroscience.
Grade point average from bachelor’s degree.

Admission rules

Important dates

Application help

Have you submitted your application?

Admission statistics Neuroscience 2024
Admitted	30
Admission distribution (legal right/other)	0% / 100%
Applicants	276
Age average	24
Legal gender distribution (cpr. - m/f)	47% / 53%
Nationality (dk/international)	37% / 63%
Available spots	No

Programme structure

The MSc in Neuroscience is a 2-year programme taught in English, and there are approximately 30 students in a year.

The programme is known for its extensive and ambitious curriculum, cutting-edge and research-based lecturers, and student involvement in presentations and discussions.

Teaching forms are lectures, journal club work, and research projects. It also includes visits to laboratory facilities at the University of Copenhagen, hospitals, other universities and research centers in Denmark, as well as industries.

• 37% mandatory courses
• 13% elective courses
• 50% thesis

During your first year, you will complete a number of compulsory and elective courses. The courses provide you with a thorough introduction to key areas. In your second year, you can specialise in an area of research during your extensive nine months thesis project.

1st year

1st semester	2nd semester
Neuroscience I - Cells and circuits (20 ECTS)	Neuroscience II: Higher brain function (15 ECTS)
Experimental design in Neuroscience (10 ECTS)	Electives (15 ECTS)

2nd year

1st semester	2nd semester
Master's Thesis (60 ECTS)	Master's Thesis (60 ECTS) - continued

In addition to your compulsory courses, you must choose two of the following three electives:

In the elective courses the focus is on applied neuroscience, and you will attend lectures by specialists in the topics covered by the individual modules. The specialists include professors from the University of Copenhagen and from stakeholders including industry.

You choose the subject for your thesis according to your own preferences within the field of neuroscience and find a supervisor who is able to supervise you during the thesis period.

Researchers at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences can offer inspiration within a wide range of thesis subjects that enables you to tailor a programme that matches your personal interests.

The thesis can be carried out at the university or in combination with environments outside the university of Copenhagen. This may be private or public institutions. The master's project gives you substantial experience in individual experimental work.

Some students write their thesis in a research department abroad. The research placement is planned by the student in cooperation with their chosen host institution and their main supervisor at the university of Copenhagen.

Read the programme curriculum

Career opportunities

Upon graduating, you will be qualified to find solutions in neuroscience in general, and find new solutions where neuroscience is applied.

You will acquire highly specialized knowledge of and competences within experimental neuroscience, translational neuroscience, and to support clinical neuroscience.

The programme focuses on methodologies and newly developed in vitro and in vivo models. You will acquire practical skills within neuroscience research which enables you to apply neuroscience to solve complex problems.

As a graduate, you have a wide range of career opportunities.

You are qualified to e.g.

continue your academic studies as a PhD student
work within the technical and pharmaceutical industries in Denmark or abroad
support research, diagnostics, and treatment at university hospitals

Some of the advantages about studying Neuroscience are:

a high-quality education in English
covering all aspects of neuroscience
a flexible study structure
world leading facilities
a vibrant international study environment
the opportunity to experience life in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

As a graduate, you have completed a research-based degree programme enabling you to work in the field of neuroscience.

Knowledge

You will acquire knowledge and understanding of:

neurology and psychiatry: disease pathology, disease mechanisms, diagnostics and treatments.
the brain structure and its function.
the mechanism of perception, locomotion, and higher brain functions.
methods, definitions, and tools in neuroscience.
the brain in health and disease, and technologies used to determine various measures in the brain, such as, drugs, medico-technology, as well as digital solutions.
the contribution of neuroscience in other disciplines and fields.
how to describe neurobiological domains such as cognition, affection, addiction, locomotion, pain and more.

Skills

You will be able to:

use central neuroscientific tools, as well as more general academic tools.
evaluate relevance and ability of neuroscientific methods and theories.
combine knowledge at the cellular and molecular level with brain functions.
communicate and discuss research-based knowledge with both neuroscientist and people with limited knowledge in the field.

Competences

You will have the competences to:

plan and execute neuroscientific experiments and interpret neuroscience data and literature.
develop and evaluate solutions in neuroscience.
work independently as well as in teams.
critically assess literature in neuroscience.

As a graduate, you have a wide range of career opportunities.

You are qualified to

continue your academic studies as a PhD student in Denmark or abroad
work within the medicotechnical and pharmaceutical industries in Denmark or abroad
work at hospitals
pursue a career within research
support and assist research facilities and industries

Student life

When you study Neuroscience, you will be part of an international and vibrant study environment.

Roughly 8,000 students, including many international students, are studying at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

The programme is based at North Campus.

The safe atmosphere, the well-developed infrastructure, the low level of pollution and the many cultural events all contribute to making Copenhagen one of the most livable cities in the world.