The vocational school student survey
NOKUT wishes to strengthen the knowledge base concerning educational quality by collecting information about the vocational school students’ view on educational quality. The student survey for university- and university college students has been conducted every year since 2013, and has established itself as an important national survey. In 2017 NOKUT was commissioned to conduct a similar student survey for vocational school students by the Ministry of Education and Research.
The vocational school student survey covers all tertiary education, that is, education building on upper secondary education. The survey contains questions on the students’ opinions on the quality of the study programmes at Norwegian vocational schools. The survey was conducted in April/May 2023.
Purpose
The purpose of the survey is to give educational institutions, students, higher education applicants, the government and other stakeholders information about educational quality in the vocational education sector.
Population and questionnaire
The population for the survey included all vocational school students who had studied for more than one semester, and to some vocational school students in their first semester of study. In total, the population included approximately 23 000 students from 56 vocational schools, as well as approximately 800 study programmes.
The questionnaire contained approximately 100 questions, primarly concerning the students’ opinion on the educational quality in their study programme. We asked, among other things, about their perspectives on the study- and learning environment, teaching and academic councelling, and working life relevance. We also covered other themes such as student engagement, by asking questions regarding motivation, study effort and expectations. The same survey was sent to all students, regardless of which study programme they were enrolled in.
The respondents could answer most questions by way of a five-point scale (from «not satisfied» to «very satisfied», from «do not agree» to «agree completely», and from «to a low degree» to «to a high degree»). The students could also choose the option «do not know». The exceptions to the five-point scale were the background questions about the student herself (sex, work and educational history, etc.), the questions on study effort (in which students gave estimates in numbers of hours), the questions on teaching- and study methods, and questions regarding their choice of study programme.
The questionnaire for 2023 can be found here:
Spørreskjema 2023 fagskoleundersøkelsen - bokmål
Spørreskjema 2023 fagskoleundersøkelsen - nynorsk
Spørreskjema 2023 fagskoleundersøkelsen - engelsk
Studiebarometeret.no
The results from the vocational school student survey are published under a separate tab in the web portal Studiebarometeret.no. All information is treated as confidential, and we do not publish any data that makes it possible to identify individual respondents.
Contacts at the educational institutions
If and when institutions establish any new contacts, we ask that their name, email-address, and phone number are sent to fagskoleundersokelsen@nokut.no as soon as possible. A single educational institution may have more than one designated contacts.
Contacts at NOKUT
Kristoffer Fretland Øygarden: kristoffer.fretland.oygarden@nokut.no