Master in Sustainable Heritage Management

Master in Sustainable Heritage Management is one of 5 English-taught Sustainable Development programmes at Master's Degree level in the register, offered by 4 institutions. 5 of them list an annual fee for students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, from EUR 4,000 to EUR 15,000; this programme lists EUR 4,000 a year. 4 are recorded as free for EU, EEA and Swiss students.

Sustainable Heritage Management at Aarhus University is a two year full time master's taught in English. You study at Moesgaard, just south of Aarhus, in a setting shared by the Department of Archaeology and the Moesgaard Museum. The programme mixes theory and practice, and treats heritage as something living: a resource for the present and the future, not only a set of things to protect.

What you study

The first semester gives you the conceptual and methodological base. Theory and Concepts in Heritage Studies covers key concepts, debates and thinkers in the field. Sources and Methods in Heritage Studies introduces research methods and design and lets you carry out a small independent research project. Heritage Management Frameworks looks at heritage legislation and its consequences at local, national and global level.

In the second semester you take Heritage Project Management, which covers project development and delivery, including financial control, personnel management and professional pitching. Heritage in Practice explores the contemporary museum, its practices, controversies and debates, with a substantial site visit component and direct input from senior museum curators from across Denmark. Production and Communication of Heritage trains you in podcasts, film and writing for popular science publication.

The teaching draws on archaeology, anthropology, intellectual history, aesthetics, history, museum studies, cultural studies, evolutionary studies and digital design. You work with tangible heritage as well as textual data, and with the ways people and communities use heritage.

How the programme is organised

The third semester is where you shape your own profile. You can intern with a heritage facing project or institution, or study abroad for the semester. Past students have interned with museums, galleries, media start-ups, sustainable food initiatives, local government offices and sports clubs, in Denmark and internationally. In the fourth semester you write a research thesis under supervision.

Your daily base is the Department of Archaeology at Moesgaard, an eighteenth century manor house that also houses the Department of Anthropology. You have a library, computers, a common room, lounges and a cafeteria, plus the Moesgaard Museum next door, which you can enter free with your student card. The SHM Student Committee runs social activities, feeds into the academic programme and handles outreach. MoCa Mates pairs new international students with senior master's students for weekly informal meetups.

Who it suits

This suits you if you want to work with cultural and natural heritage and are comfortable asking hard questions. The programme asks what counts as heritage and what does not, how we document, prioritise and safeguard it, how civil society can engage responsibly, how competing claims of ownership and rights should be handled, and how heritage can be co-created and communicated in sustainable ways. You should be ready to reflect critically on the ethical dimensions of heritage work, including cases where heritage management places burdens on local communities.

Admission, language and next steps

You need a bachelor's degree comparable to a Danish one in level and duration (180 ECTS). The specific requirement is 45 ECTS in cultural heritage studies (for instance museology, museum studies, heritage production or administration) or a field allied to it. Certain Danish bachelor's degrees give direct admission, including history, prehistoric archaeology, medieval and renaissance archaeology, classical archaeology, archaeology, art history and anthropology from Aarhus University, and history, European ethnology, prehistoric archaeology, classical archaeology, Assyriology, Near-oriental archaeology, Eskimology, art history and anthropology from the University of Copenhagen, plus international development studies and geography with a focus on the cultural environment from Roskilde University. No Aarhus University bachelor's programme carries a legal right of admission.

Intake is limited, so meeting the requirements does not guarantee a place. Applicants are ranked on grade level from the qualifying degree, grades in cultural heritage subjects, and other relevant experience, which you document with a one to two page description of relevance in English and an English CV. Grades earned after the application deadline are not counted. You must meet the university's English language requirements. Aarhus University cannot assess your qualifications in advance; you have to apply to be assessed. Applications go directly to the institution. Students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland study free of charge; other students pay a fee set by the institution. The programme starts in August or September, with no winter intake.

Master’s applications go straight to Aarhus University, not through optagelse.dk, and the institution sets its own deadline. Entry requirements and language tests are set by the institution, so start from the official programme page. Our guides cover tuition fees, residence permits and housing.