Master in Actuarial Mathematics

Master in Actuarial Mathematics is one of 5 English-taught Mathematics programmes at Master's Degree level in the register, offered by 3 institutions. 5 of them list an annual fee for students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, from EUR 4,545 to EUR 17,300; this programme lists EUR 8,700 a year. 5 are recorded as free for EU, EEA and Swiss students.

The MSc in Actuarial Mathematics at the University of Copenhagen is a two-year, 120 ECTS master's taught in English. It sits close to the insurance and finance sectors, and it is built on mathematics rather than on business school case work. You work with mathematical statistics, mathematical finance and quantitative risk management, with the emphasis on insurance and pensions.

What you study

The programme has two overarching topics that you study intensively:

• Life insurance mathematics covers insurance linked to major life events: retirement, death and disability. It typically involves long-term business and significant financial risk.
• Non-life insurance mathematics covers damage or injury to things or persons, such as fire, natural disasters and theft. It typically involves short-term business with significant catastrophe risk.

Compulsory courses are Mathematical Finance (15 ECTS), Statistics in Insurance (15 ECTS), Quantitative Risk Management (7.5 ECTS) and Topics in Life Insurance (7.5 ECTS). That is 45 ECTS of compulsory coursework. You then choose restricted electives (15 ECTS) from a list that includes An Introduction to Large Deviations, Term Structure Models, Reserving in Non-Life Insurance, Consumption-Investment Problems, Financial Econometric Time Series Analysis, Introduction to Extreme Value Theory, Monte Carlo Methods in Insurance and Finance, Optimal Stopping With Applications, Applied Probability, Continuous Time Finance 2, Interpretable Machine Learning, Projects in the mathematics of life insurance, and Design and Risk Management in Life Insurance. Some of these are not offered in a given academic year, so check the list before you plan.

How the programme is organised

The structure is 45 ECTS compulsory courses, 15 ECTS restricted electives, 30 ECTS free electives and a 30 ECTS master's thesis. One block each year is nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. In year one you take the four compulsory courses across blocks 1 to 3 and a restricted elective in block 4. Year two is 30 ECTS of electives in blocks 1 and 2, then the thesis in blocks 3 and 4.

The thesis is where you work at a scientific level with an insurance-related problem. It is often based on a practical problem, and in some cases it is carried out in cooperation with an insurance company. You can also use elective space for a project in practice in Denmark or abroad, with a supervisor who approves the host company and examines the written report orally, or for study abroad through the Faculty of Science's exchange agreements.

Who it suits

This suits you if you want a rigorous mathematical programme and you are comfortable with measure-theoretical statistics and probability. The admission requirements are specific: life insurance mathematics (at least 7.5 ECTS), non-life insurance mathematics (at least 7.5 ECTS), statistics on a measure-theoretical basis (at least 22.5 ECTS), advanced probability (at least 7.5 ECTS), accounting and law (at least 7.5 ECTS), mathematical finance (at least 7.5 ECTS), mathematical analysis (at least 22.5 ECTS) and linear algebra (at least 7.5 ECTS). If you hold the UCPH bachelor's in Actuarial Mathematics (forsikringsmatematik), you have a legal right of admission and are guaranteed a place if you apply by the deadline, and you can wait up to three years to use it.

Admission, language and next steps

You apply through the application portal, and the programme does not offer pre-assessment of your background. The language requirement is English B. Deadlines differ by citizenship: applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland have a 1 March deadline for September start (reply by 15 May) and a 15 October deadline for February start, which is open to legal right of admission only. Applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland have a 15 January deadline for September start (reply by 13 March) and the same 15 October February deadline. Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland study free of charge; other students pay a fee set by the institution, and a deposit applies. If there are more qualified applicants than places after legal right of admission is applied, applicants are ranked by total ECTS credits within actuarial mathematics. The September 2027 intake starts 1 September 2027, with application by 15 January 2027 for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.

Master’s applications go straight to University of Copenhagen, not through optagelse.dk, and the institution sets its own deadline. The register shows 15 January 2027 as the next deadline for this programme. Intake, as the register states it: Starts 1 September 2027 (apply by 15 January 2027). 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.