Costs of study, student income, and study behaviour in Denmark.
1. Introduction
2. The national system of higher education
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"Student as such" policies has never been adopted in Denmark. Danish students as a group are too heterogeneous in regard to age, study behaviour, housing and living conditions etc. to be put on a simple formula. They are seen to differ only in very few aspects from the remainder of the population within their age group, and are generally believed to be adults with the same needs and requirements as other adults in society.
While studying the state provides economic support to students as a substantial basic income as a supplement towards covering their living costs. Apart from this, there are very few economic support programmes aimed at students specifically. This is to say, that when the state subsidises citizens for some reason or another, these arrangements generally also apply to students.
The financial situation of students in Denmark is therefore not very thoroughly described or investigated, and there is hardly any research going on in this field in Denmark.
Due to this fact, the report is based on relatively few empirical studies as listed in Appendix F in the report.
We have mainly relied on the vast amount of statistical and other information on the distribution etc. of the Danish state support for students available at SUstyrelsen, and on the findings in a recent thesis from the Institute of Political Science, University of Copenhagen on the Students’ Grant and Loan Scheme in an educational policy context. (Note: A short description of the empirical studies is given in Appendix B).
The latter aimed at investigating whether the political intentions behind a sweeping reform of the national economic support system of students that was carried through in the late 1980's were realised. Among the intentions was a desire to bring down the duration of study, which should be done by inciting students to decrease their extent of gainful employment.
The thesis contains two empirical studies dealing with students at the University of Copenhagen; a comparative study of data of student income and study progress before and after the introduction of the reform, and a survey carried out through a questionnaire presented to 1000 current students.
The fact that the survey on the basis of which we answer certain chapters include only students at the University of Copenhagen, naturally makes the picture of the financial situation of students incomplete. However, only few studies on the subject have been carried out and even fewer seem applicable in this particular context.
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The higher education programmes in Denmark are divided into short-cycle (KVU), medium-cycle (MVU) and long-cycle (LVU) programmes.
The 80 short-cycle programmes are usually designed as 1-3-year programmes, and normally presupposes previous completion of a youth education programme. The majority of the short-cycle programmes are provided by the vocational colleges. 8% of an age group enter these programmes.
The medium-cycle programmes, which take 3-4 years, usually prepare students for a profession. For example, the teacher training programme, the programmes in librarianship, social work, journalism, nursing, occupational and physiotherapy and so on. The admission requirement will normally be a leaving examination at general upper secondary level. 23% of an age group enter medium-cycle programmes.
The long-cycle programmes are provided by the universities and institutions with university status. These programmes typically consists of 3-year programmes leading to a Bachelor’s degree and 2 further years for the Master’s degree. A 3-year Ph.D.-programme can be added on top of this. 16% of an age group enter long-cycle programmes.
The short-cycle programmes are provided by 69 institutions - mainly vocational colleges – the medium-cycle programmes by 114 institutions (60 colleges of education, 11 nursing schools and 32 other institutions), and the long-cycle programmes by the 5 universities and 7 other institutions with university status, in total 195 institutions offering higher education programmes. This corresponds to one higher education institution per 26.000 inhabitants, which is by far the highest rate among the countries in northern Europe. In consequence, the number of students enrolled per institution i also rather small in Denmark, an average of 800 students per institution. There are no private institutions. Three of the business schools are self-governing institutions, while all the others are State-run institutions.
Higher education is financed 100% by the State, but compared with other educational areas, it enjoys a high degree of autonomy - particularly in respect of the content of the programmes.
They are financed on the basis of the "taximeter" principle, whereby grants are awarded per student who has passed either a partial or a final examination. The size of the grants varies for the different programmes and is fixed by the annual Government Budget. Research is not covered by the taximeter system and therefore receives a separate appropriation. The total amount allocated to each institution on this basis is made available to the institution, which is then free to dispose of this amount.
State intervention in the autonomy of the 5 universities and the 7 institutions with university status is limited. The Parliament lays down the structure and distribution of responsibility within the institutions in the Act on the Universities etc. A new act on the universities came into force in 1993. This act outlines the principles of the internal structure, which can then be filled out by the individual institution. The act also lists the governing bodies (Rectorate, Senate and faculty councils), and lays down the autonomy - in financial terms as well - of the institution.
But the act gives no directions regarding the contents of the programmes. It is up to the universities themselves to design the programmes in compliance with the provisions of the act and departmental orders. But the Ministry of Education can close down or limit the intake into programmes which has proven to be of poor quality.
The universities are, however, committed to a certain framework when setting up the content and structure of the programmes. They must follow the above mentioned 3+2+3 model. The Ministry moreover issues orders which constitute framework descriptions of a programme or groups of programmes. The degree of detail of the orders differs very much.
A great deal of power is vested in the collegiate bodies. They for instance decide on the number of study places in the different programmes offered, the detailed content of the programmes, the special criteria for admission and so on. The head of the institution is the rector, who is responsible for the administration and day-to-day management of the institution.
One of the so-called "soft" control mechanisms used by the Ministry is evaluation. The Ministry has set up an independent evaluation centre which can take steps to evaluate a programme. A poor evaluation, which is known to the public, will normally be enough for the university to take action. The intention is that if a university or an education programme becomes known for poor quality, the students will not seek admission to that university, which will then lose money as a consequence of the taximeter grant-awarding principle.
In most areas, there are what we call free intake. Free intake is the situation seen from the point of view of the institution. The institution is entitled, and at present obliged, to take in as many of the applicants as its physical and human resources allow, provided that the applicants meet the admission requirements. But there is no free admission, which in Danish terms means, that all students leaving youth education are entitled to be admitted to the higher education programmes and institutions of their own choice.
The admission requirements to the medium- and long-cycle programmes fall into two categories:
The obligatory requirements: Applicants must normally have passed an examination at general upper secondary level. The Ministry has issued an order which for each higher education programme indicates the subjects which must have been passed at general upper secondary level, and at which level they must have been passed in order to gain admission to the programme concerned. On the basis of this order, the individual institution may decide that a minimum mark shall have been obtained in the subject and at the level concerned. The same principle may apply to the medium-cycle programmes, but here the qualifying examination is often sufficient.
Finally the selection itself: If there are more applicants than study places, the institutions can decide to make the selection on the basis of two groups. Within the so-called group 1, applicants are admitted according to average marks in the qualifying examination. Within group 2, applicants are admitted on the basis of an individual assessment of academic ability, which apart from the marks may be job experience, relevant activities abroad, etc.
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