The University of Southern Denmark also has widespread cooperation with business and industry in the region and considerable activities within continuing education.

The university offers a wide range of traditional disciplines as well as a broad selection of business and engineering studies.

The educational environments on the Jutland campuses have also been strengthened through the creation of new programmes such as a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Cultural Analysis, a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with Sports Management, a bachelor's in Public Health Science in Esbjerg, Danish and English Language Studies in Kolding, and a variety of engineering programmes and European Studies in Sønderborg.

Co-operation with the business community has resulted in three substantial donations from some of the giants in Danish industry: Odense is the home of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for Production Technology, where robot technology is one of the many research areas.

The Mads Clausen Institute in Sønderborg is engaged in the design and development of software for integration in the intelligent products of the future.

Thanks to funding from Kompan and Lego, a research environment for the investigation of child behaviour and development has also been established.

The Danish IAS exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities, and thereby unlock new revolutionary ideas.

The campus in Slagelse is officially being discontinued as of 2027, with the university citing issues finding another institution interested in taking over.

[21] The physical buildings of SDU cover an area of 272,554 m2 (2007), a figure that has increased from 181,450 m2 in 1999 when the university merger was implemented.

Being an epitome of Danish functionalist architecture, the campus has been nicknamed Rustenborg (which roughly translates as The Rusty Castle) by students and staff, because it is built from gray concrete slabs clad with weathering steel, in an early architectural use of that material.