The Frederiksberg teacher education protest entered a new phase on Monday morning, as students at Campus Nyelandsvej barricaded and occupied their teacher training college in Copenhagen in response to a planned closure and merger with Campus Carlsberg.
Students occupy campus Nyelandsvej to oppose closure plan
From early Monday, students on the teacher education programme at Nyelandsvej in Frederiksberg blocked entrances and began an open-ended occupation of the campus buildings. The action targets the decision by Københavns Professionshøjskole (Copenhagen University College) to close the 90‑year‑old campus and gather all teacher education programmes under one roof at Campus Carlsberg on Vesterbro.
According to the rector, Anne Vang Rasmussen, maintaining the Frederiksberg building would cost around 120 million Danish kroner (approximately 16 million euro) over the next decade. She argues that the money should instead be spent on teachers and teaching quality, not on bricks.
Student spokesperson and first‑year trainee teacher Asger Kjær Sørensen acknowledges that consolidation could free resources, but describes the decision as short‑sighted. In a widely quoted remark, he compared the move to “peeing your pants to stay warm” – a decision that feels beneficial in the short term but quickly becomes uncomfortable.
The students plan to occupy the campus from Monday to Friday, with organisers expecting at least 100 participants during the week. The occupation includes teach‑ins, open meetings and public statements addressed to the college leadership and local politicians.
A 90-year-old teacher education at risk of disappearing
The teacher education at Nyelandsvej has been described by both students and staff as a historic stronghold for teacher training in the Copenhagen area. The campus has hosted teacher education for roughly 90 years, and many current students chose the programme specifically because of its distinct culture, sense of community and active student organisations.
For students like Asger Kjær Sørensen, closing the campus would be “a disaster” for those who deliberately applied to study there. Several have stressed that Campus Nyelandsvej attracts a somewhat different profile of trainee teachers than Campus Carlsberg, including students who value a smaller environment and strong associations.
The leadership of Københavns Professionshøjskole has emphasised that the decision is not about questioning the quality of teaching at Nyelandsvej, but about the overall sustainability of running two teacher education campuses in the capital area. For many students, however, the closure feels like the dismantling of a pedagogical environment they see as important for the Danish public school system.
Falling applications and empty places behind the decision
Behind the Frederiksberg teacher education protest lies a longer‑term trend of declining applications to teacher training in Denmark. Between 2018 and 2025, the number of teacher students at Københavns Professionshøjskole has reportedly fallen from around 3,657 to 2,646 – a decrease of roughly 25 percent.
At Campus Nyelandsvej specifically, the number of students has halved in recent years, while the college has also seen fewer applicants at Campus Carlsberg. The dean for teacher education and lifelong learning, Tove Hvid Persson, has pointed to empty study places and falling demand as key reasons why the board chose to close Nyelandsvej and concentrate activities at a single campus.
The board argues that consolidation will make it possible to focus resources on improving teaching, supervision and support for future teachers, instead of financing two large buildings. The decision has been described internally as “melancholic but necessary” from a financial perspective.
Students and their supporters contest this logic. They argue that closing a popular campus will further reduce interest in teacher education, particularly among those who were drawn to the specific learning environment at Nyelandsvej. For them, the risk is a downward spiral in which fewer campuses lead to fewer students and, ultimately, fewer qualified teachers.
Teacher shortages in the Copenhagen region raise broader concerns
The occupation in Frederiksberg also reflects wider concerns about teacher shortages in the Greater Copenhagen region. Several municipalities, including Albertslund, Gribskov and Copenhagen, already report that around one in three teachers in public schools do not hold a full teacher education.
Student representatives argue that, in this context, closing an established teacher education campus sends the wrong signal. They fear that reducing study options could undermine efforts to train more qualified teachers, especially in a metropolitan area where recruitment is already difficult.
Fellow student Liv Winther has warned that many of her peers selected the programme precisely because it is based at Nyelandsvej. In her view, shutting the campus risks discouraging future applicants and could therefore worsen the shortage of trained teachers in the coming years.
Parent organisations have also voiced concern. Ida Awesome Østergaard, deputy chair of the association Skole og Forældre (School and Parents), has called it “problematic” to look towards a future with fewer educated teachers. She argues that authorities and stakeholders must highlight what is working in the Danish folkeskole (the comprehensive public school system) and take shared responsibility for strengthening the profession.
What the frederiksberg protest reveals about danish teacher policy
For observers of Danish education policy, the Frederiksberg teacher education protest illustrates the tension between structural reforms and local educational environments. On one side are boards and administrators seeking to streamline institutions and respond to demographic trends and budget constraints. On the other are students, staff and parents who see place‑based educational communities as central to teacher identity and school quality.
In recent years, Danish governments have launched initiatives to raise the status of the teaching profession, improve working conditions and tackle classroom challenges such as pupil absenteeism and disruptive behaviour. At the same time, colleges have faced pressure to rationalise their physical infrastructure in line with falling student numbers.
The fate of Campus Nyelandsvej will therefore be watched not only in Frederiksberg, but across Denmark and the wider Nordic region. For many, the question is whether concentrating teacher education in fewer, larger campuses will strengthen the profession – or whether it will erode the diversity of environments that attract different types of future teachers.
As the occupation continues through the week, students at Nyelandsvej are trying to keep the focus on this broader dilemma. Their actions highlight a core question for education systems in the Nordic countries and across Europe: how to secure enough well‑trained teachers, while also preserving the local learning communities that make the profession attractive in the first place.
