Chapter 1: The Danish Government’s vision of Better Education

A well-functioning education system of high quality is a basic prerequisite if we are to ensure growth and welfare both for the individual and for the Danish society as a whole.

The Danish Government has a vision of a flexible education system with the offer of education and training courses at a high proficiency and competence level. The courses of education and training must be relevant and meet the business sector's and the public sector's qualification needs. Furthermore, the education and training courses must meet the requirements of the individual pupil or student - also of the most gifted.

It is the target that Danish education and training must match the best in the world, also when evaluation and benchmarking are carried out cross-nationally. This both applies to the general and the vocationally-oriented courses of education. The prerequisite for achieving this target is a significantly strengthened effort within five areas: qualifications and competences, flexibility, innovation, freedom of choice and output management.

At the general level, the aim is that everyone should acquire a number of individual competences as well as be prepared to take part in society and know about its basic values. Society is subject to rapid changes - technical as well as cultural. It is therefore essential to maintain values such as freedom of speech, equality, tolerance and democracy. We must know our past and the basis on which our values are founded in order to be able to face the challenges of the future.

Education should develop pupils and students as independent individuals by promoting such qualities as initiative, courage, enthusiasm and the desire to learn something new. With the rate at which new knowledge is created, it is of decisive importance that everybody has a basic foundation of general, personal and social competences, including the desire and ability to pursue further education. It is becoming more and more important to be able to acquire new competences both within one's own profession and in a combination of different professional areas.

Education should make it possible for the individual to cope on his or her own, to develop his or her potential and make his or her contribution to the civil society. In this way, education sustains the community and the common cultural identity. All people are committed to the whole both in their choice of education and in their daily efforts. As pupils and students are becoming more skilled, the ability to take part in a social interaction with others must be challenged.

In the global economy, production and the use of new knowledge constitute the key to increased growth, increased employment and increased welfare. The government's growth strategy, Determined Growth, points at a firstclass education system as a decisive parameter for ensuring growth and welfare. Denmark's competitiveness will depend greatly on whether Danish education can live up to the requirements of increased proficiency, competence and quality as well as progress in the subjects - measured by international and not least by EU standards. Society and the business community depend on staff who are able to use and communicate knowledge and translate new knowledge into innovation. In the same way the foundation of an efficient public sector is well-educated staff at all levels.

Furthermore, the growth of the Danish economy will depend on an increase in the workforce and on keeping potential candidates for early retirement in the labour market. The demographic development with an increasing number of older people and a decreasing demographic intake requires that young people move more rapidly through the education system and out into the labour market. Time wasted, wrong choices and waiting periods must be reduced, among other things through a target-oriented vocational and educational guidance and through better credit transfer possibilities from one course of education to another.

Increased proficiency and competence and quality measured by international standards require a strengthening of the international dimension in education. International approaches must be integrated into the teaching in all courses and subjects. Young people must acquire cultural competences with a view to being able to cope in an internationally oriented world. Research experience from other countries must be included on a par with Danish experience, and knowledge about Denmark's international cooperation relations and commitments is a prerequisite for a future-proven education sector.

Denmark must take active part in international quality development, evaluation and benchmarking and use the results to a greater extent, if it is to attain the target of matching the Danish education system with the best in the world. We must, through international cooperation, take advantage of the opportunities and be inspired by good examples from other countries with regard to organisation, teaching and innovation.

The recognition of results and credits acquired at educational institutions abroad must to a greater extent contribute to the international mobility of students, teachers and the working population. At the same time, it must to a greater extent be possible to have experience and prior learning recognised abroad.

In the higher education area Denmark takes an active part in the Bologna process, which is among other things to ensure a European credit transfer system, comparable degrees and better quality. In the field of vocational education and training a similar cooperation is in the pipeline. The aim of this cooperation is to ensure that the individual can get his or her vocational qualifications recognised and be able to move freely between different jobs in different countries.

Qualifications and competences

A high and relevant standard when it comes to qualifications and competences must be ensured at all levels of the education system, on the one hand in relation to the contents of the programmes, and on the other hand in relation to all the educational courses offered and to the educational structure.

There must be coherence and progression in the proficiency and competence requirements throughout the entire education system. The basic, general, social, cultural and personal competences must be taken into account, and the proficiency and competence requirement, the level of the teaching and the relevant competences must be constantly developed. The educational courses offered must be constantly adapted to the structurally - conditioned competence requirements in the Danish business sector.

The proficiency and competence level on the individual levels of the education system must be ensured. Inadequate qualifications and competence at one level must not result in dropout from the subsequent level of education.

The courses of education must be reviewed from a new perspective in order to identify the profile of the individual subjects and their social relevance. It is the aim to ensure dynamic proficiency, qualification and competence, however, the overall target is to create a total supply of courses of education, where both the quality of the subject matter and the social relevance are in focus. The quality of the subject matter and the social relevance in the university programmes must be strengthened through cooperation between universities, the business sector, sector research institutions and the other knowledge centres.

The identity of a course of education must be defined through a number of objectives which describe the subjectspecific expertise and skills which make up the content foundation of the course. This foundation will at the same time form the basis of the continued development of competences - including the various specialisations. As far as the research-based programmes are concerned the driving force is the development of the research, the cooperation with the business sector and the cooperation between universities and sector research institutions.

Emphasis must be laid on clear formulations of targets for the individual subjects, levels of education, programmes and institutions complete with clear criteria for the assessment of the achievement of targets. A clearer formulation of targets must on the one hand strengthen the basis for the teaching, and on the other hand it must be able to document on a continuous basis how a strengthening of the proficiency, qualification and competence level is taking place in the individual institutions.

The targets must reflect that the programmes are to contain subject-specific challenges for all, also the most gifted. Everybody must be challenged to perform their very best. The teaching must be target-oriented towards the individual pupil with the point of departure in his or her abilities and development potential.

A strengthening of educational proficiency must contain various concrete targets - dependent on whether the focus is on the general or on the vocationally oriented courses of education. With the point of departure in the general courses of education, the target is in particular set on a strengthening of qualification and competence in the natural sciences subjects, mathematics, Danish and in foreign languages. As far as the research-based courses are concerned, the guidance given by the lecturers and their qualifications in pedagogy and communication must be further enhanced.

Flexibility

The education system must be able to live up to the recipients' expectations regarding employees with relevant qualifications and competences. Both the structure of the education system and the organisation of the individual courses offered must be based on the greatest possible flexibility also in connection with the students' possibilities of choosing a course of education. The focus must be put on lifelong learning, modular courses and e-learning. In the vocational education and training and the short and mediumcycle higher education areas, recognition of the individual's prior learning must be much more common. Prior learning is also relevant in connection with the universities' Master programmes. We must move away from the concept where competences are only created within the education system. For they are also to a very great extent developed in the place of work, through participation in liberal adult education, voluntary work in associations etc. It should be made possible to acquire competences - including entrance competence - in different ways so that there can be a difference from individual to individual. It does not, however, mean that the government will slacken its subject-specific requirements, for instance its entrance requirements for programmes leading to authorisations.

On the basis of experience from other countries, the government will take an initiative with a view to developing reliable and accepted methods for the individual development of competences in cooperation with the business sector and the educational institutions. The focus must to a greater extent be set on "what a person can do" rather than on "what he or she has" in the form of certificates.

As many as possible must complete a qualifying course of education. However, possibilities must be created in particular within vocational education and training for people to acquire vocational competences earlier than at present. After a period of time, it should be possible to get on the educational train again and strengthen and further develop the vocational competences acquired previously.

It is therefore of decisive importance that the education system can ensure offers of quality and relevance to the individual throughout his or her life. It must be possible to acquire vocational competences in various ways and with different durations of study.

In this context, also the work with credit transfer must be given a higher priority with a view to ensuring flexibility and increased mobility in the education system, nationally as well as internationally.

Innovation and entrepreneurship culture

Flexibility must also support a change of attitude towards a culture which inspires innovation and entrepreneurship. The desire to work must be given back to pupils and students, and young people must in general be prepared for a working life in the labour market of the future, where it is both challenging and attractive to start something new and be independent.

It is important for the business sector's ability to hold its own against international competition to reduce the distance between the birth of an idea, in a research environment for instance, and its conversion into a product marketed by a company. Education is instrumental in ensuring new knowledge and are given the ability to translate research and new ideas into their individual practice.

We are not performing very well in this area today. It is here that the education system has a central role to play. There are many talented young people, but we do not educate a sufficient number of them to become entrepreneurs. Denmark has an unused potential in this area, and the government aims to exploit this potential. Young people are to be given the tools and competences that enable them to become talented and growth-enhancing entrepreneurs - the most gifted and most highly educated of them should become knowledge-based and high technological entrepreneurs, who make use of their competences in a businessrelated context.

Society's investments in education will only give the necessary yield in the form of growth and welfare if there is a close interaction between the entire education system, the university and sector research and the business sector. The research results must be disseminated to the surrounding world through cooperation with public and private companies. This requires highly educated employees and an enhanced entrepreneurship culture. The government wants better opportunities for and a positive attitude towards innovation and entrepreneurship in the education system. This will come through an increased focus on entrepreneurship culture at all levels and within all courses of education. The government will make an effort to strengthen the structural and content-related elements required for the inclusion of innovation and entrepreneurship in our education system, and it will therefore present an action plan in the autumn, the aim of which is to create more entrepreneurs.

Free choice

The government highly values the citizen's free choice. There must be a free choice of educational institution, and here it is very important for the government that a relevant supply of education and training is ensured all over the country through a regionally balanced institutional structure.

There must be a greater flexibility for pupils and students to adapt their education through courses offered by different institutions - for instance within the general upper secondary programmes. However, it must be stressed that the freedom to put together a course of education must not be introduced at the expense of qualification and competence. The institutions should to a greater extent take part in cross-institutional network cooperation with a view to supporting flexibility. Existing barriers to a maximum flexibility should be removed.

The freedom to choose a course of education does of course require that one has the necessary skills, and that the future prospects for the subject seem promising. There is no sense in educating young people for unemployment, when at the same time there is a shortage of people in various sectors. The courses of education are therefore not only to support the business sector's need for competences, but in important areas also its recruitment needs. When it comes to for instance the health area, where there is already an increasing demand for labour, the government will consider incentives which may increase the intake to the social and health education programmes, including the basic social and health education programmes and the nursing programme. The same is the case with the natural sciences and technical university programmes, where the intake of students and the completion rate must be increased with a view to coping with the shortage of labour in these areas. Thus in particular, the medical industry, the IT sector and the biotechnological companies are growth areas with recruitment problems and a great need for employees with researchbased qualifications. This should be taken into account in the new thinking about research-based education programmes.

Relevant and available information about the contents, quality and the achievement of targets is also a prerequisite if citizens and companies are to choose education and school or educational institution freely and on an informed basis. Transparency and openness will further the basis for lasting choices of both education and institutions and thus for a quicker completion of the programmes. The government will present proposals which are to strengthen the educational and vocational guidance effort, also involving more coherence across the different sectors. The guidance offered should be made more transparent and more easily available to the individual citizen - among other things through an increased use of IT. In this way, the guidance offered contributes to ensuring that there really is a free choice for the individual young person. Furthermore, the guidance of young people must to a greater extent focus on initiatives that sustain entrepreneurship.

Output management

The institutions are to be given a greater degree of freedom and a better framework for quality development. The educational institutions must have adequate freedom to be able to meet the new requirements of increased quality, proficiency and competences. An increased selfmanagement requires well-functioning, sustainable and regionally based educational institutions - institutions, which can offer flexible and relevant solutions that are adapted to the competence needs of the students and companies, and which can ensure strong and relevant educational possibilities for everyone throughout the country.

A consistent renewal of the way in which educational institutions are managed is a cornerstone of the government's educational policy. There must be a new and clear division of tasks between educational institutions and central regulation which places the educational institutions in a stronger position in their daily work and in the organisation of future quality development. The management concept must be changed into a coherent development-oriented management concept with the focus on principles regarding selfevaluation and based on requirements with regard to the institutions' entire work on quality.

As a consequence of the decentralised management form, a detailed set of rules and subsequent checking of the individual institutions' observance of these rules must be replaced by a more result-oriented supervision which is to a greater extent characterised by the overall supervision of results and analysis of the institutions' framework conditions for ensuring that they have the optimal conditions for delivering high quality.

One element in the renewal is greater transparency and openness, where among other things output indicators are to provide relevant information for the stakeholders of the institutions - students, recipients, local and regional stakeholders, staff etc. and at the same time create the basis for an active involvement of the stakeholders' assessment of the quality and the results provided by the institutions. The quality of the teaching and the development of proficiency and competences must be documented through tests and examinations which match the targets set and which render visible the individual students' benefit from the teaching. There is thus a need to work with the development of new examination and test forms, among other things in general upper secondary education and in the university area. Furthermore it should take place through evaluations of the programmes, both self-evaluations and evaluations carried out by the individual institution as well as crosscutting evaluations.

In order to improve and ensure the educational institutions' quality development work, agreements are used based on the institutions' freedom and responsibility for prioritising and weighting. The agreements take their point of departure in a formulation of action areas and targets for the respective educational sectors and the higher education programmes with the addition of new action areas and targets to the multi-annual agreement from 2001. It will require a special effort from management, which must initiate and support development projects and be visible - also when it comes to salaries.

The economic framework of the initiatives in the action plan and the follow-up to this are the funds already set aside in the Budget for 2002, including the ministries' conversion funds etc. The implementation of the initiatives must as far as possible take place in the form of agreements which take their point of departure in objective distribution criteria according to which the institutions at the same time commit themselves to reporting in relation to a number of objectives agreed beforehand, including a number of indicators for quality and efficiency. In the university area, the implementation will take place in connection with structural reforms.

This page is included in the publication "Better Education" as chapter 1 of 2
© The Ministry of Education 2002