The Danish Education System by Philip Hamm

The Danish education system

Here in Denmark most people know that we have to make money using our knowledge, instead of our hands. That is why the government spends a great amount of money too the Danish education system. Based on that account, they expect fully professional and qualified students, when they graduate, but how does the Danish education system work?

By Philip Hamm 2p – Ordrup Gymnasium

Due to the high taxes and duties that are to be found in Denmark, we have to use our knowledge to make money, instead of our hands, as it is seen in Asia.
That is why the Danish government uses about 144,8 billion kroner (19 billion euros) on the educational system, which is about 8,2 % of the Danish BNP. As a result of that, education in Denmark is free for all.

When a kid is at the age of 6-7, its parents may choose either a municipal school (duty-free) or a private school (self-governing institution, where you pay a fee.)
These schools include both primary and lower secondary education with no streaming.
After 9 years in school, you may choose a set of different youth educations (upper secondary education).
These educations are founded to prepare the youngsters for higher education, and include a variety of different programs. At this point the students are about 16-19-years-old (please look at “FIGUR1” while reading the following);

STX (3-year upper secondary school leaving examination)
HHX (3-year higher commercial examination)
HTX (3-year higher technical examination)
HF (2-year higher preparatory examination course)

These 4 educations, depending on your grade, give access to almost every education. (80,4% of the Danish youth chose one of the 4 educations and graduated (2003))
A minor group of youngsters chooses either a vocational education/training (VET) or individual programs. These educations leads directly to professional bachelor degrees, and are mainly focused on technical, mechanical or commercial fields.

The ones who complete an upper secondary education can, as referred to above, choose among almost any education they like. They can get Diploma programs, Bachelor degrees, or long cycle higher educations, which can be “upgraded” to candidatus or PhD. (again look at “FIGUR1”)
Some of these educations have no demands of a certain grade point average, while others have either small, or moderate demands. Only a few educations (10-15) have very high demands regarding to grade point average, but these limits gets adjusted every year, depending on the number of appliers.
Beside the grade point average, some educations also demands that you have accomplished, for example, math at an advanced level. If that’s not the case, you can upgrade the subject, also after you have ended the upper secondary education.


















The Danish government has over the past few years, tried to ensure competitiveness of the Danish education system, in today’s global society. The government has, for example, introduced the new 7-point scale. It’s been introduced to make sure that Danish grades can be compared with the International scale.
Also they have introduced the new upper secondary education system, which helps students by offering options that help the youngsters specialise themselves.