AAU Law Students are Denmark's Most Satisfied and Become the Country's Highest Paid Lawyers

By Anette Marcher Jensen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

After 10 years, lawyers from Aalborg University (AAU) receive a significantly higher salary than lawyers from the country's three other law programmes. During their studies, AAU law students are also more satisfied with the academic and social environment in their programmes than students at the other law programmes. This is shown by figures from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science's official education statistics, Uddannelseszoom [Study Programme Zoom].

After 10 years in the labour market, graduates from AAU's law programme typically receive a monthly salary of DKK 65,400. This is significantly more than graduates from the country's three other law programmes where the typical monthly salary 10 years after graduation is between DKK 52,100 and 56,150. The salary information in Uddannelseszoom is based on data from Statistics Denmark.

Head of Studies at the Law Programme, Sten Bønsing, is delighted that AAU's law graduates are doing so well in terms of salary.

- It’s of course gratifying that they can secure such a high salary. Employers want to pay for high-quality employees, and we know that our lawyers are in great demand – not only here in Northern Jutland but in the rest of the country as well, Sten Bønsing says.

For him, however, it means more that AAU law students evaluate the programme itself as positively as they do. The figures in Uddannelseszoom come from the Ministry's Studiemiljøundersøgelse [Denmark's Study Environment Survey] where students and graduates evaluated their degree programmes on a number of parameters, including the social and academic environment in the programme, the quality of the teaching staff and the relevance of the programme.

Better well-being and less stress

According to Uddannelseszoom, AAU law students rate the programme’s social environment higher than the students in the country's three other law programmes. They feel more comfortable in their studies. Fewer of them feel lonely, and fewer of them have experienced severe stress symptoms.

For the academic environment, AAU law students rate it higher than students in the country's three other law programmes on two out of four parameters. On the other two parameters, they rate the academic environment second highest.

AAU law students also feel that they have easier contact with their teachers than students in the country's three other law programmes. They also feel to a greater extent that the feedback they receive from teachers helps them move forward with what they need to learn.

- The students' assessment of the programme is far more important to us than how much they subsequently receive in salary. What matters to us is that they thrive in their studies, are happy to study here, acquire knowledge that they can then use for something – and of course that they get a job after graduation. And that, we can see, is the case, says Sten Bønsing.

According to Uddannelseszoom, the unemployment rate for recent law graduates from AAU is 3 percent, and 10 years after graduation it is 0 percent.

The law school at AAU is the youngest of the country's four law programmes. The first students were admitted in 2007, and five years later in 2012, a total of  of 61 AAU law candidates graduated. It is therefore only now that there is enough data on graduates to determine their salary 10 years after graduation.

Find Uddannelseszoom [Study Programme Zoom, in Danish]