Danish students: Older, experienced, slow starters

Eurostudent report has Denmark's students mature, experienced and taking long breaks before university

by Afton Halloran

Danes, along with other Nordics, appear to be older, more experienced and take longer to start university than other Europeans.

This is according to a recently published report by Eurostudent, Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe which examines university students in 25 countries.

More than half of Danish students take over 12 months of study break during their career path through secondary school and university. In contrast, only one out of every three Europeans take a longer than 12 month break.

Real world experience

Many students in Denmark enter into university after a period of regular paid work. Among European countries, Danish students appear to enter higher education with more experience of the labour market.

Only 14 per cent of Danish students enter university without any job experience.

This is compared to countries like Romania, Croatia and Turkey, where over half of the student population do not hold job experience before they start university.

Aged to perfection

Over 20 per cent of full-time Danish students are over the age of 30. This is in stark contrast to French, Croatian, Latvia and Turkish students, where only between two and six per cent are over 30.

Denmark has the oldest bachelor students. 15 per cent of Danes doing their bachelor’s degree are over the age of 30. And more than 50 per cent of Master’s students are between the age of 25 and 29, says the report.

See the full Eurostudent report here

See also our article: Danes study less, and spend less time in class.

afton.halloran@adm.ku.dk

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