Degrees from universities and colleges
04.02.40 - Universities and colleges
Annual.
Figures are presented at national level. Data does, however, include information that makes it possible to provide figures for the municipal and county level.
360 - Division for Education Statistics
Statistics Act sections 2.2 and 2.3 and the Ministry of Finance's delegation letter on 13 February 1990.
The data is provided pursuant to EU community regulations 1921/99, 1925/99, 557/98 and 3711/91.
The data is provided for OECD, UNESCO and Eurostat.
The purpose of these statistics is to present individually based statistics of graduates in tertiary education in Norway. In recent years, only preliminary statistics have been published, whereas the graduate statistics for 2004/2005 are final figures.
There is a high demand for the collection of official statistics on education. Official education statistics are individually based and document the educational activities of all Norwegian residents from completion of lower secondary school to completion of all tertiary education including doctoral studies.
Norway’s education statistics went through a structural readjustment in the beginning of the 1970's. All statistics on higher education were previously available through a census. The data is now individually based, with all educational activities being attached to each individual's personal ID-number. The data is contained in the National Education Database (NUDB) in a format that allows the production of different kinds of education statistics and connection with other types of individually based statistics where necessary (e.g. income, social-welfare).
Important users of the education statistics are public administration, special interest organisations, media, researchers, business and industry. Key users amongst the ministries are the Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Ministry of Children and Equality and the Ministry of Finance. The statistics are also used by international organisations such as EU, OECD and UNESCO.
Tertiary graduation statistics include all individuals who have completed a degree 2 years or longer from an educational institution classified by the Standard Industrial Classification as a tertiary institution. Registration of completed educational activities occurs during the period 1 October – 30 September each year.
Universities in Norway: University of Oslo, University of Bergen, University of Tromsų (including the Norwegian College of Fishery and Science), University of Stavanger (previously Stavanger University College – classified as a university from 01.01.2005) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (established in 1996 through amalgamation of the University of Trondheim, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, The College of Arts and Sciences, the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology and the Faculty of Medicine).
Specialised university institutions: Norwegian University of Life Sciences (previously called Agricultural University of Norway), Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo School of Architecture, Norwegian Academy of Music, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
University colleges are grouped into state, military and other colleges. The last group includes Oslo and Bergen’s National Academy of the Arts, Norwegian Police University College and all private university colleges (including the Norwegian School of Management).
Pursuant to the Statistical Act, Statistics Norway collects student data from the administrative systems of the various tertiary institutions. The most common administrative systems are M-STAS, used primarily by university colleges and FS, used primarily by universities. Tertiary institutions that don’t use M-STAS or FS must use their own administrative systems to create data files in the format specified by Statistics Norway. Information on completed doctoral degrees is collected from NIFU STEP.
Surveys are not employed to collect education statistics. All data is obtained from university and college databases.
Pursuant to the Statistical Act (June 1989, No.54), Statistics Norway collects student data from the administrative systems of the various tertiary institutions.
Control and revision is performed on all data received from educational institutions. It encompasses deletion of duplicate records, a control for correct and valid values for each variable and checks for missing information. Several variables are re-coded to comply with control programs run by Statistics Norway and Personal ID-numbers are referenced against Statistics Norway's population database to check for errors.
No estimation is performed. The statistics are based on enumeration of graduates in tertiary education.
To prevent identification of individuals within the statistics, data is not released where there are less than three students within a single cell in a table.
Completed education: A person’s education activity is recognised as completed when the institution they’re attending awards them a diploma or provides some other evidence that they have met the full requirements for completion.
Type of school: according to the Standard Industrial Classification of 1994.
Outcome: Reports whether an education course has been completed.
School Ownership: classifies institutions as public, county/municipal or private.
School County/Municipality: where the institution is located.
Age: per 31 December of the school year.
Educational activities are grouped by the Norwegian Standard Classification of Education
which was established in 1970 by Statistics Norway and later revised in 1973, 1989 and 2000.
Educational institutions are classified as being tertiary by the Standard Industrial Classification
Statistical investigations can encounter various sources of error. Errors can occur during collection if units being investigated are not identical to the mass of units we aim to describe. A person may be wrongly registered as being a student, especially for individual institutions that use a different enumeration date to Statistics Norway (1 October). Overestimation of student numbers is common for universities where registration occurs with payment of registration fees rather than enrolment in subjects. Students themselves can also provide inaccurate information to the registers.
Inaccuracies in graduation statistics can occur when those responsible for the registers wrongly define a student as meeting the requirements for completing a degree. Reporting of combined bachelor degrees (Cand.mag. degrees) is a problem with several institutions because these degrees don't have a set curriculum and are only registered as complete when a diploma is issued. In many cases, this occurs some time after the student actually completed their degree and can be in the following study year as defined by Statistics Norway (1 Oct.-30 Sept.).
Not relevant.
Not relevant.
Not relevant.
Individually based data on competed education has been published annually since it was first collected in the 1973/74 school year. Most variables are comparable, but some have changed. The revised Norwegian Standard Classification of Education recoded education courses to enable comparison of newer and older data. While education courses are reasonably comparable over time, other variables are not (e.g. coding of institution types).
Tertiary education data is combined with secondary school data after the revision processes are complete. The data is thereby stored as single yearly files of completed secondary and tertiary education in the National Education Database (NUDB). Statistics Norway uses a similar system for all individually based statistics, making it easy to combine education statistics with other areas. Labour market statistics, health statistics, living conditions statistics and income and wage statistics are examples of other individually based statistics compiled by Statistics Norway.
Statistics Norway's Web site for statistics on higher education
Statistics Norway currently publishes different official education statistics each year. These statistics are first released via the homepage. Later it is accessed via the Education theme page or Statistics by subject.
Education statistics are also published annually in the Statistical Yearbook of Norway, Education at a Glance (OECD publication) and Key Data on Education in Europe (EU publication).
The series "Official Statistics of Norway" contains documentation of standards, methods and variables used to compile official statistics released by Statistics Norway. Documentation of individually based education statistics is available in English. A link to this documentation is available via the Norwegian version NOS D351.
Figures associated with publications of education statistics are available in StatBank Norway, where you may select the scope and content of each table, and then export data in various formats to your own PC.
Statistics Norway stores all data in a proper, standardised manner in consultation with the Data Inspectorate.
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