International students using Danish folk high schools to enter the EU

Missing students have been traced to Portugal

Lucie Rychla

Jul 11, 2016

Over the past eighteen months, some 20 international students who were enrolled to non-formal academic programs at the Danish folk high schools (folkehøjskole) have disappeared.

Authorities suspect the foreigners, most of them from Nepal, may have used the opportunity to study in Denmark as a loophole to enter the EU.

Some of them have been traced to Portugal.

The folk high schools have now been advised to use Skype interviews to better assess international applicants before they are admitted, says Niels Glahn, the secretary general of the Association of Folk High Schools in Denmark.

“We are careful not to become a Trojan horse for students who want to enter the EU,” Glahn told Politiken.

The Danish folk high schools are a popular form of boarding schools that offer non-formal adult education to young people aged between 18 and 24.

Students can choose from a wide range of specialisations at about 70 institutions spread across Denmark.

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