6.3.3.8. Promotion, Educational Guidance
With effect from 15 January 1994 and applying to students who have commenced their university studies after August/September 1993, a new system of 1st year examinations have been introduced, whereby students have to register for and pass an examination before the end of the 2nd semester of their studies in order to be allowed to continue their studies. The form and content of this examination shall be established by the educational institution, and the examination is intended to document the student’s study aptitude. Students who fail this examination may register for a new attempt in August, and failing that there is a last attempt at the end of the 4th semester. Students can as a maximum register for this examination three times.
As regards promotion from the medium-cycle Bachelor’s degree courses to the long-cycle Master’s degree courses, there are provisions in the curriculum of the Master’s degree course as to which Bachelor’s courses give admission to it, and as to which subjects and levels the student must have in his Bachelor’s course, and which marks, if any, he must have obtained in order to proceed to the higher level.
All the university-sector institutions have educational and vocational guidance counsellors to advise the students.
The Student Counselling Service is an independent institution which is available to students in need of assistance for the solution of social, economical, study-related and personal problems. The staff of the service are social workers, psychologists and secretaries who are all subject to the rules on professional secrecy.
10.4. Consultation with Mainstream Education
The decision as to whether a child’s development requires special consideration or support is dependent on a concrete assessment in each individual case, which, according to section 12 in the Act on the Folkeskole , shall be made upon pedagogical and psychological counselling and upon consultation of the pupil and his/her parents.
As a rule, it is the teacher(s) of the ordinary teaching which experience a given pupil’s special needs. It is the pedagogical-psychological counselling service which look into the nature of the need and makes proposals for remedying it. And it is the headteacher of the school, who decides whether a pupil shall be referred to special education.
10.5. Admission Requirements, Diagnosis and Guidance
In the general regulations pertaining to special education, there are no objective criteria for establishing the need for and thus the justification of special support, but the procedure for making the decision is described in detail. As a rule, it is the teacher(s) of the ordinary teaching which experience a given pupil’s special needs. It is the pedagogical-psychological counselling service which looks into the nature of the need and makes proposals for remedying it. And it is the headteacher of the school, who decides whether a pupil shall be referred to special education. And finally it is the pedagogical-psychological counselling service which is to follow the development of the pupil with a view to making the necessary adjustments, including the discontinuation of the support.
10.12. Promotion, Educational Guidance
Pupils with special needs follow the same course of schooling as the other pupils in school, i.e. they follow the instruction at the form level which corresponds to their school age. Pupils may however with the approval of their parents, attend the same form for two years, if it is considered that he or she will benefit from such a measure. If a teacher experiences that a pupil has special needs, he will usually ask the pedagogical-psychological counselling service to look into the nature of the need and make proposals for remedying it. It is also the pedagogical-psychological counselling service which follows the development of the pupil with a view to making the necessary adjustments, including the discontinuation of the support.
10.14. Openings, Training-Employment Relationship
For pupils receiving special educational assistance, the transition from basic education to continued education or to working life is a difficult process, which often requires considerable support in the form of counselling and guidance in the last year in basic school, in the transition situation and often for some years after. The psychological counselling service of the schools are responsible when it comes to offering a special effort in general, but there are also special provisions about counselling assistance which make it possible to employ special consultants to safeguard this task.