Three out of four students have parents who have graduated

StudentsStudents. Photo: pixabay.com

Every fourth student in Norway has parents without higher education. The rest come from families with a background from university or college.

OECD figures show that 21 percent of Norwegian students have parents who do not have any education after high school, while 6 percent only has primary school, Aftenposten writes.

The remaining 73 percent thus have parents with a higher education, shows an adolescence report from the Directorate for Child, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir).

Professor Kjell G. Salvanes at NHH says there is a widespread belief that it is easy for children in Norway to do better than their parents when it comes to jobs, income and education.

– Still children’s social background has relatively little impact on their prospects of income as adults in Norway as the social mobility is high.

The paradox is that it is not true when it comes to education. For education the mobility is remarkably similar to what we see in other countries, including the United States, a country with high income inequality and low social mobility, says Salvanes, who has written an article in the Bufdir report.

OECD figures also show that compared with other countries, there are several more in Norway now that are less educated than their parents.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today