A 576 1971-1972 - SSB

9
PRINCIPLES AND DEFINITIONS
Coverage
It is intended that the statistics on finished education shall comprise all persons (regular
students and "privatists", i.e. persons who present themselves for an examination after having been
educated privately or having attended a non-recognized school) who have taken part in a completed educational
activity of the normal minimum duration of at least 300 lessons a year. The statistics on
finished education were first time compiled for the first six months of 1971. The tables in this publication
relate to educational activities completed during the school year 1971-72.
Courses of training completed at military training establishments have not been included in the
figures. Another major source of incompleteness results from failure to report students who drop out.
An instance of this is the material supplied by the Gymnasium Council relating to courses of education
completed at secondary modern schools and gymnasiums: in the figures applicable to these important
sectors pupils who left school before sitting for their final examination are not included. The figures
relating to completed courses of study at university do not include students who dropped out before
taking their examinations.
It is possible that long-term studies based on intermediate examinations will be broken down
into sectionalized courses. In this publication such a breakdown has been undertaken only in cases
where certificates or diplomas are awarded for intermediate examinations passed and where it is apparent
for other reasons that the sectionalized course concerned constitutes a qualifying study in its own
right. Students attending universities have in these statistics been included when taking:
1) examinations qualifying for a degree (university college examination, final university
examination, or doctoral degree),
2) examinations in a subsidiary, minor, or major course,
3) examen philosophicum.
This means that in general students who have sat for examinations in single scientific subjects
(includingmathematics) and for examinations that are a part of a more comprehensive course of study are
not included in the statistics on completed education.
Characteristics
The statistical units - persons who finished an educational activity in Norway during the school
year 1971-72 -have in the tables been broken down according to the following characteristics: sex, age,
type of education or training, result, educational institution, school county, adult education, fullor
part-time education, curriculum, and mark/grading.
Age is in the tables that attained as of 1 January 1972.
Type of education. Educational activities are defined and classified in accordance with the
rules laid down in the Norwegian Standard Classification of Education.
Result. The criterion may be any one of the following: Schooling not completed, examination not
passed, or completed. A person is considered to have completed an educational activity if the
institution concerned has issued a diploma or otherwise certified that he or she has satisfied the
requirements laid down for the course in question. Under Examination not passed have been classed
regular students and "privatists" who failed their examination, who had to sit again in single subjects
or were allowed to sit later, or who withdrew while the examination was in progress. Students who
withdrew before sitting for their,examination or who ceased to participate in an educational activity
before satisfying the minimum requirements laid down for participation in such an activity,are counted
as Schooling not completed.