Master in Biochemistry

Biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen is a two-year master's programme taught in English. The programme is for you if you want to do research or work in the pharmaceutical field. It gives you room to shape your own study through elective and restricted elective courses.

What you study

You build your degree from compulsory courses, restricted electives and free electives. The compulsory part is a Principal Subject in Biochemical Research. You also take a Major Subject Project, where you learn to analyse, justify and plan a large research project. That project is often the starting point for your thesis.

The restricted elective list is long and specific. It includes Advanced Bacteriology, Advanced Cell Biology, Biological Sequence Analysis, Cell Cycle Control and Cancer, Cellular Signalling in Health and Disease, Crystallography, Data Science for Genomics, Integrative Structural Biology, Metabolomics, Molecular Genetics, NMR spectroscopy, Protein Research Lab - Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, RNA Biology, Structural Bioinformatics, Synthetic Biology and Virus, Microbe and Host, among others.

The thesis takes up the whole second year and is worth 60 ECTS. You work on an independent project that is usually a smaller part of a larger ongoing research project. You can carry it out at one of the departments linked to the programme, or externally at another research institution, a hospital or an industrial laboratory. Examples of thesis topics from the programme page include cytokine receptor signalling at the membrane interface, metabolism routes in extreme thermophilic micro-organisms, signal transduction routes in cancer cells, and biogenic amines formed by lactic acid bacteria in dairy products.

How the programme is organised

The programme is built in blocks. One block is nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. If you start in September, you begin with the Principal Subject in Biochemical Research and an elective course. Later blocks mix restricted electives with the Major Subject Project. If you start in February, you begin in blocks three and four.

You can use elective courses for a project in practice in Denmark or abroad, for example with a company or an institution. You need a supervisor who approves the host company and guides you through the project and the final oral examination. You can also study abroad for one or two semesters, or take a summer school, and transfer the credits you pass. The Faculty of Science has about 100 Erasmus+ exchange agreements and more than 100 university-wide agreements with non-European universities.

Who it suits

This programme suits you if you want to do independent laboratory research and you are ready to plan and carry out experiments. It fits students who like biochemistry and molecular biology and want to go deeper into areas such as cell signalling, structural biology, genomics or metabolism. The thesis year is largely self-driven, so you should be comfortable working on a longer project with a supervisor.

Admission, language and next steps

You apply through the application portal. The programme does not offer pre-assessment of your educational background. You have a legal right of admission if you hold a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry (biokemi) from the University of Copenhagen. You can use that right for up to three years after you finish your bachelor's degree.

Several degrees automatically meet the academic admission requirements if you also meet the language requirement, English B. From the University of Copenhagen: Biochemistry (biokemi), Molecular Biomedicine (molekylær biomedicin) and Nanoscience. From the University of Southern Denmark: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. From Aarhus University: Biotechnology engineering (civilingeniør), Molecular Biology and Molecular Medicine.

If you have another Danish or international degree, you are eligible if your programme includes at least 60 ECTS from formal classes in chemistry and biochemistry or molecular biology, with at least 30 ECTS in chemistry and 22.5 ECTS in biochemistry or molecular biology. You also need at least 30 ECTS from courses with experimental laboratory exercises. You must meet the English B requirement.

Applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland must pay an application deposit and tuition fee. Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland study free of charge. The institution sets the fee for other students. The application deadline for applicants from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland is 15 January for the September start. For applicants from within the EU, EEA and Switzerland, the deadline is 1 March. The February start is open only to applicants with a legal right of admission, with a deadline of 15 October.

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.