Financing and ownership
The education system is financed by the state or the municipalities. Some institutions are self-governing, while others are owned by the state or the municipalities.
The table below illustrates the sources of funding and forms of ownership for selected groups of institutions. In addition to public financing, tuition fees are charged at private schools and there is user payment for a number of adult education programmes.
Taximeter financing
The central government's system of financing education and training is almost exclusively based on the so-called taximeter system, a comprehensive financing system based on per capita grants (cash-per student) to institutions.
The grants are calculated primarily on the recorded student activity measured on the passing of examinations. The taximeter rate varies according to subject field and level of education.
| State institutions | State-funded/supported, self-governing institutions |
Institutions funded by the municipalities | Tuition fee |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Folkeskole | x | No | ||
| Private elementary schools | x* |
Yes | ||
| Continuation schools | x** | Yes | ||
| Gymnasium | x | No | ||
| Commercial colleges | x | No | ||
| Technical colleges | x | No | ||
| Maritime schools | x | No | ||
| Schools of marine engineering | x | No | ||
| SOSU colleges | x | No | ||
| Academies of professional higher education | x | No | ||
| Specialised colleges and university colleges | x | No | ||
| Universities | x | No | ||
| Schools of architecture | x | No | ||
| Academies of music | x | No | ||
| Adult education centres | x | Yes | ||
| Labour market training courses | x | Yes | ||
| Folk High Schools | x | Yes | ||
| Evening schools | x | Yes |
* Public contribution to private elementary schools: 85% of the State’s operational grant per pupil, excluding expenditures for pensions.
** Continuation schools depend on a large degree of State funding. Pupils at continuation schools do have to pay a tuition fee but the amount varies – and is subsidised by the State – depending on the parents’ income. Average annual tuition fee per pupil amounts to DKK 25,000 excluding state subsidies (2005).
