Getting your foreign qualifications recognised in Denmark

These are two different things, and mixing them up costs people months.

An assessment (vurdering) from the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science is a short statement of what your foreign qualification corresponds to in Denmark: which level and, where possible, which field. It is not a licence. You can use it when applying for jobs, for admission to study, and for membership of an unemployment fund (a-kasse). A private employer decides for itself whether you have the right competences; a Danish public authority that hires you must base its view of your qualification level on the Agency’s assessment.

An authorisation is legal permission to practise a regulated profession. If your profession is regulated, the Agency tells you plainly not to ask it for an assessment — apply to the authority responsible for your profession instead.

More than 100, from doctors and nurses to municipal schoolteachers and forklift drivers. The official list names the authority for each one. Some common examples:

• Doctor, nurse, midwife, physiotherapist, psychologist and the other health professions: the Danish Patient Safety Authority.
• Teacher in the Danish folkeskole (primary and lower secondary): the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science.
• Lawyer (advokat): the Department of Civil Affairs.
• Electrical and plumbing work: the regulated role is the “technically responsible person” in an authorised business, handled by the Danish Business Authority.

Engineer is not on the list as a general title, although specialised roles such as certified structural engineer are. If your profession is not on the list, you need no authorisation to work in it — the assessment simply makes your degree easier for an employer to read.

You can get an assessment if the qualification is completed, publicly recognised in the country where you studied, part of that country’s formal education system, and you document it on the Agency’s application form. Grades and subject levels are not assessed; institutions look at those when you apply to study.

The result uses Danish level labels such as “Bachelor’s degree”, “Master’s degree (MA/MSc)”, “Professional Bachelor’s degree” or “vocational qualification”. Before you apply, search the Agency’s assessment database: it shows how similar qualifications from your country and institution were assessed in recent years. It is guidance only and cannot replace your own assessment, but it tells you roughly what to expect.

The Agency assesses completed qualifications at all levels, including trades. A result of “vocational qualification” means a level corresponding to a Danish vocational education and training (VET) qualification of three years or more; “short vocational qualification” means under three years.

An assessment does not give you a Danish trade title — only a Danish institution, or for vocational qualifications a trade committee, can issue those. If you want to top up to a Danish certificate, a competence assessment in adult vocational education (EUV) can credit what you already know and exempt you from parts of the programme. Ask a vocational college or your municipality’s employment service where to start.

If you cannot get hold of the documentation for a good reason — for example because you are a refugee or studied in a country at war — you can apply for a background report instead of an assessment. You fill in a form describing your education in detail: subjects, length, internships. The Agency then describes your educational background and how it would normally assess a similar qualification with full documentation.

A background report is not legally binding, unlike an assessment, but it gives an employer or school an official reference point. Send everything you do have, even a photo of a transcript. The form can be written in English, French, Spanish, German, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. Refugees will find the wider picture in our refugee guide.

Health professions are authorised by the Danish Patient Safety Authority. For doctors, dentists, midwives and nurses educated in the EU/EEA or Switzerland, recognition is automatic: authorisation is granted on the basis of documentation for your education. EU-educated nurses, for example, apply with a certificate of conformity and a certificate of good standing; the authority aims to decide within three months, and the fee is DKK 1,362.

Education outside the EU/EEA means a longer route. For doctors it runs through an assessment of your education, the Danish 3 exam (Prøve i Dansk 3), medical tests, a course in Danish health legislation and a period of employment for adaptation and training. Nurses have their education approved, then complete adaptation employment and a language test within three years.

The authority currently applies a quota of zero to nurses and doctors from outside the EU/EEA; for nurses it runs until 31 December 2026. The quota does not apply if you already have legal residence in Denmark when you apply — for example as a refugee or an accompanying partner — or if you are a Danish or EU/EEA citizen. Nurses whose education was completed more than six years before applying also need at least 12 months of full-time nursing work within those six years.

EU rules give you a firm timeline: the competent authority must decide within three months of receiving a complete application, extendable by one month in special cases. If your training differs substantially, the authority can grant a conditional decision requiring an aptitude test or an adaptation period. For five professions — including general care nurse, pharmacist and physiotherapist — you can apply with a European Professional Card.

If you only provide services in Denmark temporarily, a quicker procedure applies, usually just a declaration. For unregulated work you need no recognition at all, though an assessment still helps an employer read your degree.

For regulated professions the authority decides on the basis of your education and proof that you are fully qualified to practise at home, sometimes adding your work experience. The answer is positive, conditional (an aptitude test, an adaptation period or supplementary training) or negative with reasons. Danish law sets no time limit, so apply before you arrive if you can.

Teachers are a useful example. With a qualification to teach classes 1–10 at home, you can apply for recognition to teach in the folkeskole. A conditional approval may require one or two subjects at a university college; the adaptation-period option is only for EU/EEA citizens. You can take substitute teaching jobs without any authorisation — and teaching is in Danish.

Write your original qualification first, exactly as it appears on the diploma, then the Danish equivalent in the Agency’s own words. Recruiters skim education in seconds; a recognised Danish level answers their first question before they ask it. For a regulated profession in progress, state the stage honestly — “authorisation in progress” with the steps completed is a strength, not an admission. For layout and the rest of the CV, see our Danish CV guide.