DENMARK

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defence manage the Danish education system. Compulsory education is from 6 to 16 years and then students can attend academically oriented programs (upper secondary schools) or vocational education programs. Most academic programs take 3 years to complete. Higher preparatory examination (HF) takes 2 years and vocational education programs can take 1.5 to 5.5 years but are usually 3.5 to 4 years long. The academic programs prepare students for higher education where there are three types of educational institutions: business academies that offer short-cycle programs; university colleges that offer medium-cycle programs and universities that offer long-cycle programs. The figure below shows the structure of the Danish school system.