Completion rates of pupils in upper secondary education

The Knowledge Promotion Reform:
Introduced in 2006, this reform continued the legalized right to upper secondary education. It also introduced a new terminology. "Area of study" was now called "education programme" for example.

Enrolled pupils: Pupils registered at an educational institution at the 1^st October a given year.

Education programme:
A common description of related subjects in upper secondary education. Upper secondary education consists of three levels: Vg1, Vg2 and Vg3 (first, second and third year for general programme fields).

General fields of study:
Courses are divided into general study programmes and vocational study programmes. General fields of study include courses such as "Specialization in general studies", "Music, dance and drama" and "Sports and physical education". From 2016, "Media and communication" and "Arts, design and crafts" were included.

Pupils at vocational fields of study can also obtain a university and college admissions certificate (like they would from general study programmes) by completing a vg3 additional courses to obtain such a certificate.

Vocational fields of study: Vocational fields of study include courses in "Building and construction", "Design, arts and crafts", "Electricity and electronics", "Healthcare, childhood and youth development", "Media and communication" (until 2015), "Agriculture, fishing and forestry", "Restaurant and food", "Service and transport" and "Technical and industrial production".

In the autumn of 2016, "Media and communication" became a general field of study. Pupils starting Media and communication in the autumn of 2015 or earlier, follow the old programme (as a vocational field of study).

Alternative education program: Pupils in alternative curriculum. Alternative education programmes cannot be specified prior to 2006.

The total competence achieved by the end of the course is ranged by the type of competence. Trade certificates are prioritized, followed by other vocational qualifications and university and college admissions certifications. Double competence is not represented at the current time.

Basic competence is competence on a lower level than a full vocational qualification or university and college admissions certification. Basic competence is documented in the form of a training certificate and may be planned or unplanned. The pupil or training candidate receives training that is based around those subjects, or parts of subjects, that she or he is able to master.

Pupils heading for such planned basic competence, that will be regarded as having completed their upper secondary education, have to:

1. Attend upper secondary education at least 3 years during the five year period
2. Successfully complete the individual training programme

Pupils heading for planned basic competence, who have a decision (resolution) of special education in all subjects, do not need to show progression. On the other hand, pupils heading for planned basic competence and who have a decision on special education just in a few subjects, have to show progression to level 3.

Lower secondary school points: Lower secondary school points sum up the pupils’ results in different subjects and form the basis of entrance/intake in upper secondary education. Including school year 2005/2006, the lower secondary school points were calculated by adding up the numerical value of eleven grades of subjects. From 2007 lower secondary school points are calculated by adding up the numerical value of the grades, dividing on the number of grades and multiplying by 10. The exception is when the participant has less than eight grades. In such cases, lower secondary school points are not calculated and are classified as missing.

Completed education: A pupil is considered to have completed their education with a university and college admissions certificate or vocational qualification if he/she is registered with passed Vg3/vocational certificate and/or registered with a certificate in the National Results Database. Those taking courses at a higher education institution are also treated as “completed upper secondary education”.

Normative length of study: Normative length of study is the period to complete upper secondary education within the course requirements for full-time pupils. Normally, this is three years for general programmes and four years for vocational programmes (two years in school and two years of apprenticeship). However, some programmes have two and a half or three years of apprenticeship combined with two years in school. Moreover, some programmes have three years in school and two years of apprenticeship (especially within Electricity and electronics, but also Building and construction). To take into account variations in the normative length, we use normative length as specified in the VIGO code database.

Beyond normative length of study: Completion beyond normative length of study is when a pupil/apprentice uses more time than what is normative (see above), but within the time horizon for the tables published here.

Drop-out: refers to a pupil who dropped out before or within final year.

School county: County of school.

Social background: Is based on parent's educational level. The parent with the highest educational level defines the social background of the pupil.

Household income (split in quintiles): The needs of a household grow with each additional member but not in a proportional way. Needs for housing space, electricity, etc. will not be three times as high for a household with three members than for a single person, due to economy of scale. With the help of equivalence scales each household type in the population is assigned a value in proportion to its needs. The factors commonly considered to assign these values are the number of persons in the household and whether they are adults or children. Several equivalents-scales exist which are used for different purposes. In the Income and wealth statistics for households, the EU scale is applied.

The groups represented are generated by splitting the data into five equal parts, quintiles. The first quintile is equivalent to the fifth of households with the lowest incomes, containing pupils who started upper secondary education a certain year. While the fifth quintile contains the pupils, belonging to the housholds with the highest incomes.

Status of Low-income group: Pupils are placed in this group if they belong to a household with annual equivalent income below the low-income threshold. The threshold is earnings below 60 percent of median income after tax, per consumption unit, in Norway the last 3 years.

Number of economically active persons in the household: Number of people in the household the pupil belongs to, that has income from employment or self-employment that is greater than twice the Basic Amount of the National Insurance Scheme (so-called "G", or "grunnbeløpet"). This concept differs from the definition “Employed persons” used in other statistics, which defines whether a person is in employment at a certain time.

Country of birth, citizenship and country of origin: These variables are classified according to Statistics Norway's' country codes.

Immigrants are persons born abroad of two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents.

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents are born in Norway of two parents born abroad and in addition have four grandparents born abroad.

The Norwegian Standard Classification of Education, which was created by Statistics Norway in 1970, groups the educational activity. The standard has been revised; the latest large revision of the standard was done in 2000.