Territorial Review Copenhagen - Region Hovedstaden

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population. The partnership agreement also focuses on increasing the
number of doctoral students.
Education is one of the priorities for the City of Copenhagen, expressed
in the ―Better Learning for all‖ strategy launched by the City of Copenhagen
in 2006. This strategy was intended to strengthen the public elementary
schools in the city and to make sure that children in Copenhagen are among
the best in Denmark in reading, mathematics and science. This was to be
achieved by a programme to strengthen standards, safety, integration and
well-being for Copenhagen‘s children over a three-year period. Elements in
this programme are better school management, early discovery of vulnerable
children via day care institutions and a more even distribution of immigrant
children over the city. In addition, three schools in Copenhagen were, as a
pilot project, appointed as ―whole day schools‖, that is, schools open to
children of age 8 through 16 that, in addition to the regular education
programme, offer training in sports, music and arts. 5 A centre for guidance
has been established to provide guidance to young people regarding their
educational and professional choices, in order to reduce dropouts.
Higher education policies
Certain constraints complicate the task of universities in Copenhagen.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, students graduate relatively late, and the dropout
rate is high. Universities in C
openhagen are of reasonably high quality, but they are not among the
top universities in the world, and their international orientation could be
improved upon.
The national government is aware of these problems, as demonstrated
by the goals formulated in the Globalisation Strategy. These challenges
have been mainly addressed through institutions of higher education. Since
1999, university development contracts between the national government
and the universities have served as a tool to describe the core tasks of the
university in consultation with the ministry. A second generation of these
contracts has been in place since 2004. These contracts are an instrument by
which universities can assess their progress in strengthening their contact
with society, and their co-operation with other universities, research
institutions and businesses. Key indicators include international student
mobility, student success rates, quality and dissemination of research and
commercialisation and patenting of research.
University funding provides incentives for student efficiency.
Universities are to a large extent funded according to the ―taximeter
principle‖; that is, according to credits that students have earned by passing