In a bid to reduce the number of students who end up unemployed after graduating, the government has decided to reduce the number of higher education student places by 4,000.

The goal is for more students to take educations that lead to good job opportunities so fewer end up on social benefits. The higher education institutions have three years to implement the new system.

“Adjusting the number of student places doesn’t mean that fewer should take an education,” Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the education and research minister, said in a press release.

“Naturally, we still need lots of graduates within humanities and social science, but we need to find a better balance so those accepted in coming years move towards educations with better job perspectives.”

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Fewer placements available
As of now, 15,000 students are accepted to take educations with poor job perspectives, according to the ministry. In three years, that will be reduced to 11,000 – a six percent drop from the 65,000 overall new students that began their educations in the summer of 2014.

The institutions will now have to offer fewer student places in a number of specific educations from next summer. The decision is part of the Growth Package 2014 agreement.

Fact Box

The number of places for educations that lead to unemployment rates of 2 to 5 percent must be cut by 10 percent.

The number of places for educations that lead to unemployment rates of 5 to 7.5 percent must be cut by 20 percent.

The number of places for educations that lead to unemployment rates of 7.5 to10 percent must be cut by 30 percent.