Danish education system explained: stages, costs, SU and holidays

How do the stages of Danish education fit together?

A Danish child moves from daycare to the folkeskole (municipal primary and lower secondary school), then a youth education (ungdomsuddannelse) from about 16, then higher education. Teaching at public schools is free throughout. You pay for care around school, for private and boarding schools, and, from outside the EU/EEA, often for university. To get a child into daycare or school, read getting your children into school and daycare.

1. Daycare (0-6): vuggestue (nursery) and børnehave (kindergarten), subsidised but paid monthly.
2. Folkeskole (6-16): børnehaveklasse (reception year, “0. klasse”) and 1.-9. klasse. Denmark has undervisningspligt (an obligation to educate), not an obligation to use the folkeskole, so a private school is a legal alternative (Ministry of Children and Education).
3. 10. klasse (optional): an extra year after 9th grade for pupils who need more preparation or time to choose (Ministry of Children and Education).
4. Youth education (about 16-19): a gymnasium or a vocational school.
5. Higher education: academies, university colleges and universities.

What are friskole, privatskole and efterskole?

Friskoler and privatskoler (together, frie grundskoler) are independent schools with their own values or teaching style. The state funds them with a grant and parents pay a monthly fee, skolepenge, which each school sets itself. To give a sense of scale, Rygaards Skole in Hellerup charges DKK 3,025 a month for one child in its Danish department, over 11 months, for 2026-27 (Rygaards).

Efterskole is the Danish boarding-school year. Pupils aged 14 to 18 live, eat and study at the school for 8th, 9th or 10th grade, and 9th and 10th are by far the most common. Some efterskoler run an exam-free 10th grade, so check this before you enrol (Efterskoleforeningen).

It is subsidised but not cheap. Each school sets a weekly price for a stay of usually 42 weeks, and the state pays statslig elevstøtte (a state pupil grant) based on the parents’ income two years before the stay. The lower your income, the bigger the grant. Families typically pay DKK 50,000 to 100,000 for the year after the grant, usually in 10 instalments (Efterskoleforeningen). The grant is not paid to you; it comes off the school’s invoice (Ministry of Children and Education).

For foreign families the grant is not automatic. Pupils who are not Danish citizens qualify if the pupil, or their parents if the pupil is under 19, has lived lawfully in Denmark without a break for at least 2 years before the course starts. They also qualify if they are covered by the Integration Act, or if a parent from another EU/EEA country works or runs a business in Denmark (Efterskoleforeningen). Without the grant you pay the school’s full price.

What are STX, HF, HHX, HTX and vocational school?

After 9th or 10th grade, your child picks a youth education. There are four gymnasium programmes, all preparing for higher education (UddannelsesGuiden):

• STX (almen studentereksamen): the general academic route, 3 years, with study lines in languages, social science, science or arts. A 2-year version exists for people who left 9th grade more than a year earlier.
• HHX: business and economics, 3 years.
• HTX: technology and science, 3 years.
• HF: 2 years, more applied, also leads to higher education.

Erhvervsuddannelser (vocational education, EUD) train you for a skilled trade, such as carpenter, chef, electrician or care assistant. About 100 programmes mix school and workplace training, and EUX combines a trade with a gymnasium exam over up to 5 years. During vocational training you get either a wage or SU (UddannelsesGuiden).

This line-up is changing: a February 2025 political agreement creates a new practical gymnasium, epx (Ministry of Children and Education).

What is free, and what do you pay for?

Nørre Gymnasium, a public school, confirms it charges no tuition and no exam fees (Nørre Gymnasium).

University tuition is where newcomers most often guess wrong. Higher education is free for EU/EEA and Swiss students, anyone with equal status under EU law, and exchange students. It is also free for students who, when they apply, hold permanent residence, temporary residence that can lead to permanent residence, or a residence permit as the accompanying child of a foreign national working in Denmark. Everyone else pays roughly EUR 6,000-16,000 (DKK 45,000-120,000) a year, and the university decides each case (Study in Denmark). So a teenager who moved here with a parent on a work permit can usually study for free.

What is SU, and can a foreign student get it?

SU (Statens Uddannelsesstøtte, the state education grant) is a monthly grant for students at a youth education or in higher education. You can get it at the earliest from the quarter after your 18th birthday (su.dk). It is taxable, paid to a NemKonto, and you apply in minSU with MitID. Since 1 October 2026, Udbetaling Danmark pays it rather than the education agency (su.dk).

How much you get depends on whether you live with your parents. In 2026 a student in higher education who lives away from home gets DKK 7,426 a month before tax. Students living with their parents get a base rate of DKK 1,154 plus a supplement that depends on the parents’ income. At a youth education, 18- and 19-year-olds normally get only the living-at-home rate, even if they have moved out, unless they get special approval (su.dk). A reform cuts the total SU allowance from 70 to 58 monthly “klip” (grant months) from January 2027, for students who started a new higher education on or after 1 July 2025 (su.dk).

The rule for foreigners: a foreign citizen gets SU only after being granted ligestilling (equal status with Danish citizens), and that means fitting one specific category. Living here legally is not enough on its own (su.dk). There are two sets of rules, and you need to meet only one category.

Under EU rules (su.dk):

• You are an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen working in Denmark as a “worker” under EU law. As a rule that means at least 10-12 hours a week, for at least 10 weeks in a row, and you keep working throughout the time you get SU. Self-employment can also count (su.dk).
• You are the child, spouse or parent of an EU/EEA citizen who works in Denmark under EU law. Your own nationality does not matter.
• You have lived in Denmark for at least 5 years, or your EU/EEA family member has lived here 5 years with permanent right of residence.
• EU/EEA and Swiss citizens who are not workers or their family members get SU only after 5 years’ residence. British citizens are covered only if they lived here under EU free-movement rules before 31 December 2020.

Under Danish rules (su.dk):

• You moved to Denmark with your parents before your 20th birthday, your family still lives here, and both you and your parents have permanent residence here, which su.dk checks in the CPR register (su.dk).
• You are married to a Danish citizen.
• You have lived here continuously for 2 years right before your studies start, with paid work of at least 30 hours every week (an average does not count) (su.dk).
• You have lived in Denmark for at least 5 years.
• You belong to the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig, fall under section 2(2)-(4) of the Integration Act, or are the Turkish child of a Turkish worker.

Non-EU/EEA students who came on a study permit fit none of these categories at the start, so in practice they get no SU. That can change only after, for example, 5 years’ residence.

When are the school holidays?

The Danish school year starts in August and has 200 school days. Each school writes its own holiday plan within national and municipal rules. In Copenhagen the summer holiday starts on the last Saturday in June and school restarts six weeks later, and the weekdays between Christmas and New Year are always off. Copenhagen’s suggested plan for 2026-27 (Københavns Kommune):

• Efterårsferie (autumn holiday): 12-16 October 2026, week 42
• Juleferie (Christmas): 21 December 2026 - 1 January 2027
• Vinterferie (winter holiday): 15-19 February 2027, week 7
• Påskeferie (Easter): 22-29 March 2027
• Sommerferie (summer): from late June, about six weeks

Vinterferie is set locally, so do not plan by Copenhagen’s calendar if you live elsewhere. Copenhagen takes week 7, but Brønderslev takes week 8 in 2027 (Brønderslev Kommune), and Høje-Taastrup took week 8 in 2026 (Høje-Taastrup Kommune). The exact dates are on your child’s school website.

The whole country travels in these weeks, so prices rise. See our guide to family holidays in Denmark.

Is a gap year normal?

Yes, completely. A sabbatår (gap year) between gymnasium and university is the norm, and nobody will read it as a warning sign. Only one in ten students who finished upper secondary school in 2024 went straight on to further study, down from one in four ten years earlier. A year after finishing, 27% of the 2023 group had started a new programme (Statistics Denmark).

At the other end, 10. klasse gives a 15-year-old an extra year to mature or firm up their grades before a youth education. It has its own subjects and a week of taster courses at youth educations, so it is not a repeat year (Ministry of Children and Education). Many take it at an efterskole.

What if your child arrives mid-year or without Danish?

Your child has a right to a place at their district school whenever you arrive, so contact the school directly. It assesses their Danish and chooses between a modtagelsesklasse (reception class) and a regular class with dansk som andetsprog (Danish as a second language) support. Ask when they will move into a regular class. The rules and the two-year limit are in our school and daycare guide.

For a teenager arriving at 14 or 15, 10. klasse can buy time before choosing a gymnasium, and an international school or a public-gymnasium IB keeps English-language continuity (see our international schools guide). Keep records of your address and work from the start: several SU routes depend on how long you have lived and worked here.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting efterskole at the Danish families’ price. Without 2 years’ residence, an EU-worker parent or another qualifying route, you may pay the full weekly price.
• Paying university tuition you do not owe. Check the exemptions with the university first.