Folk high schools, long courses, 2003

By autumn 2002 there were 955 applicants with origin from Sri Lanka, at that time making them the most common group of foreign applicants. By 2003, the number of applicants from Sri Lanka had dropped to 34, a decline of 96 per cent from the previous year. Applicants from Sri Lanka amounted to only 3 per cent of all foreign applicants by 2003, compared with 35 per cent in 2002. Other groups, which experienced significant reduction in applicants from 2002 to 2003, were Indians, Pakistanis, Russians and Americans.

In 2003 there were most foreign applicants from China, numbering 255, an increase of 55 per cent from 2002.

Slightly more than 600 foreign applicants, or approximately 10 per cent of all pupils, were registered as pupils by 1 October 2003. This is a small increase from 2002. Chinese pupils were most common of all foreign pupils. More than half of all Chinese applicants had been accepted as pupils in Norwegian folk high schools by autumn 2003.

Close to 10 per cent reduction in number of all applicants

From the previous year the reduction in number of applicants has been close to 10 per cent in total. Although the number of applicants has dropped, the number of pupils has risen from 5 800 in 2002 to 6 170 in 2003, nearly a 6 per cent increase in one year. The implication of the latter observation is that it has become more attractive to accept an offer to enter folk high schools, even though the actual number of applications has fallen.

Women are still in majority

By autumn 2003, 6 out of 10 pupils in folk high schools were female, a number that has been fairly stable the last three years. Women clearly outnumbered men in the group of 19-year-old pupils. For the other two age groups gender differences were not that marked.

Few interruptions

About 7 per cent interrupted their education programme during the school year 2002/2003. Pupils in the age group under 19 years were most likely to interrupt their education, while those over 19 years were most likely to complete their education. Women were more likely to complete their education than men.

Most pupils come from highly educated families

By 2003, close to 3 000 pupils had at least one parent with university or college degree. The latter figure amounts to 54 per cent of those that we do have this kind of information about. 44 per cent had at least one parent with upper secondary education as their highest level of education, while only 2 per cent of the pupils had parents with primary or lower secondary schools as their highest level of education.

Tables:

• Table 1 Number of applicants, by gender, age and county of residence. 2003
• Table 2 Number of applicants, by gender and citizenship. 2003. Preliminary figures
• Table 3 Pupils in folk high schools, by gender, age and county of residence. 1. October 2003. Preliminary figures
• Table 4 Number of pupils, by citizenship and gender. 1. October 2003. Preliminary figures
• Table 5 Number of pupils, by gender, county of residence versus school county. 1. October 2003. Preliminary figures
• Table 6 Number of pupils by their parents' highest educational level, gender and age. October 1 2003. Preliminary numbers
• Table 7 Number of pupils in special target groups by gender and school county. October 1 2003. Preliminary numbers.
• Table 8 Number of pupils by age, gender and completed/not completed education. School year 2002/2003. Preliminary numbers.
• Table 9 Number of pupils who completed a programme, by county of residence, gender and age. School year 2002/03. Preliminary numbers.
• Table 10 Number of pupils who completed a programme, by location of school, gender and age. School year 2002/03. Preliminary numbers.
• Table 11 Number of pupils by citizenship and gender
• Table 12 Number of pupils who completed a programme by main subject and type of course. School year 2002/03. Preliminary numbers