Short-Cycle Higher Education

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Population and Education, Social Statistics
Mikkel Jonasson Pedersen

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Short-Cycle Higher Education 2023

The statistics about short-cycle higher education describe activity on short-cycle higher education in Denmark. Short-cycle higher education is defined from Statistics Denmark's education classification DISCED-15 as all education classified on level 40. The levels in DISCED-15 for higher education are classified according to the main fields regulated by law. Short-cycle higher educations are typically 1-2 years in duration. Short-cycle higher education statistics is in its current form comparable since 2005 and is part of the overall Student Register, which contains information on all pupils and students in ordinary education in Denmark.

Statistical presentation

These statistics contains yearly data about the activity on short-cycle higher education in Denmark. This includes the number of entrants, the number of completed and the number of active students. The statistics are divided by education and the students' age, sex, ancestry and national origin.

Statistical processing

The data for these statistics are collected yearly in October from the administrative systems of the educational institutions. Statistics Denmark have drawn up standards for reporting formats, validation and error searching in cooperation with the system provider SIS and ESAS, who is in charge of the administrative systems at most institutions who offer short-cycle higher education. This means that the data received by Statistics Denmark have already been controlled. In addition, a thorough error search and validation of data are done by Statistics Denmark, where data is controlled for fluctuations across time and irregularities at the individual level.

Relevance

The statistics are relevant for public administrators, scientists and other analysts, journalists and citizens etc. as basis for prognoses, analyses and planning purposes in the educational field, but also for example in the labour market field and the integration field. The basic data for the statistics are used as background data for most of the personal statistics at Statistics Denmark, and it is the basis for the tables in StatBank Denmark about education.

Accuracy and reliability

The administrative systems that are the basis for the statistics are used by the institutions for their own daily administration of the students and also for the payment of different economic grants. Correct registers are therefore necessary for the economy of the institutions and contributes to an expected high quality of the data source. However, occasional errors will almost always occur. These are almost always fixed before next year's publication of data.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics are published about 4 months after the reference time which is 1 October.

Comparability

The current time series of these statistics goes back to 2005, but statistics on short-cycle higher education have been made further back than this. It may be difficult to compare the figures internationally, as short-cycle higher education is defined differently from country to country.

Accessibility and clarity

Statistics are released yearly in a Danish press release, at the same time as the tables are updated in the StatBank. In the StatBank, these statistics can be found under the subject Short-cycle higher education. For further information, see the homepage of education statistics.