Denmark?

Situated at the gateway between northern and western Europe, Denmark may be a relatively small country, but it’s a heavyweight study destination. Five of the country’s eight universities proper make the top 400 of the 2012/13 QS World University Rankings, with the University of Copenhagen leading the way at 51.

Tuition is free for students from the EU and certainly not extravagantly high for those from further afield, and many courses are taught in English (as in other Nordic countries, civilian Danes generally speak quite good English too).

Facts about Denmark

• Constitutional monarchy; current head of state is Queen Margrethe II
• Democracy with unicameral legislature (the Folketing)
• Head of government is prime minister, currently Helle Thorning-Schmidt
• As well as Denmark proper, which consists of the main peninsula Jutland and 406 islands (the biggest of which by far is Zealand), the Kingdom of Denmark also includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland
• Came into being as an unified country towards the end of the 10th century CE
• Capital city is Copenhagen
• Member of the European Union, and joins Sweden and Norway as part of Scandinavia (which along with Iceland and Finland constitute the Nordic countries)
•  The Danish flag (the Dannebrog – red with a white cross) is the oldest flag   currently in use
•   It rains, on average, every second day in Denmark
•   Denmark is the world’s fifth largest exporter of food (Danish bacon probably   has a lot to do with it)
•   Official language is Danish or Dansk, but German, Greenlandic and Faroese are also recognized and a large proportion of Danes speak English as a second language
•   Currency is Danish Krone, symbol: DKK, DKK1 = US$0.18
•   International dialling code is +45
•   Uses Central European Time (UTC+1), switching to Central European Summer Time in summer (UCT+2)