Studiebarometeret for fagskoler 2026

The 2026 Student Survey for higher vocational education (Studiebarometeret for fagskoler) presents how students assess different aspects of their education. A total of 10,458 students responded, corresponding to a response rate of 36 per cent. The questionnaire was substantially revised for this year’s survey. It is shorter, more targeted, and better tailored to higher vocational education. The results therefore primarily provide a picture of the 2026 situation and offers a new baseline for monitoring developments in the years ahead.

Four out of five students are satisfied with their education

Students are generally satisfied. Nearly four out of five are satisfied or very satisfied when assessing their education overall, and the average score for overall satisfaction is 4,0 on a scale from 1 to 5, where 4 corresponds to “satisfied”.

At the same time, students’ assessments vary across different aspects of their education. Students are particularly positive about the academic core of their programmes, such as the teachers’ subject expertise and learning activities that provide new knowledge and are perceived as relevant to the competencies the programme is intended to develop. Students who have completed mandatory practical training, representing 18 per cent of respondents, rate this aspect more positively than any other part of their education.

Room for improvement in some areas

Other aspects receive somewhat lower ratings, although the overall levels remain relatively high. These include feedback during the programme, how well exams and other forms of assessment reflect the competencies demanded by the labour market, access to equipment, and training in up-to-date technology. Regarding information and student involvement, most students feel that the systems are in place, but several would like to be heard more and to be informed about what happens to the feedback they provide to their institution. Some students also request better information about examinations and final assessments, learning outcomes, and the competencies they are expected to have acquired by the end of their programme.

Individual accommodations also stand out as an area of concern. Eighteen per cent of students report having a need for individual accommodation. Among these students, 43 per cent state that their needs are only partly met or not met at all. Among students whose needs are not fully met, more than half believe that the institution should have provided better information about the possibilities for accommodation.

Students’ own assessments of their education are most closely associated with overall satisfaction

We also examine what is associated with overall satisfaction. Students’ assessments were grouped into three broad quality dimensions: learning and assessment, culture and framework conditions, and labour market relevance. A range of student and programme background and structural characteristics were controlled for in the analysis.

All three quality dimensions are clearly associated with satisfaction, most strongly learning and assessment. Students who rate learning and assessment highly are generally more satisfied with their education overall. By comparison, background and structural factors, such as gender, age, field of study, and programme size measured in credits, have little influence once students’ own assessments are included in the analysis. In other words, overall satisfaction is more strongly associated with how students experience their education than with who they are or how the programme is organised. These associations do not imply that one factor causes the other.

Clear differences between fields of study

Satisfaction varies across fields of study. Students in health and welfare programmes are the most satisfied overall (89 per cent), followed by students in business and administration programmes (86 per cent). The lowest levels of satisfaction are found in technical programmes (72 per cent), transport programmes (71 per cent), and information technology (IT) programmes (69 per cent). The same pattern appears across several of the areas examined in the report: students in health and welfare programmes give relatively high ratings to instructors, learning activities, and labour market relevance, while students in technical subjects give lower ratings on several of the same dimensions.

These differences should not automatically be interpreted as differences in quality between fields of study. The fields differ in student composition, modes of delivery, programme size, and the requirements they place on learning environments, equipment, and practical training. Nevertheless, the differences are relevant to monitor, even though field of study is not significantly associated with overall satisfaction in the analysis. They show that students assess several aspects of their education differently across fields. Differences by factors such as mode of delivery (flexible programmes), institutional ownership and programme size are smaller and less consistent, and should also be interpreted in light of the fact that some groups are unevenly represented among respondents.

The overall picture is consistent with previous surveys

As substantial changes were made to the questionnaire for 2026, the results are not directly compared with those from previous years. Nevertheless, the overall picture is familiar: students in higher vocational education have consistently been broadly satisfied, while students in health and welfare programmes have generally rated their education more positively than students in technical programmes. Practical training has also generally been assessed positively. The relationship between how students assess different aspects of their education and how satisfied they are overall is also consistent with previous analyses (NOKUT, 2024).