In addition to selecting from our diverse list of main courses, you will receive tuition in Norwegian language and culture. We will provide you with necessary school material.

During your stay you will get to know Norway, its people and their culture, whilst at the same time you will be sharing your own language and heritage. The language barrier is not an issue at NordmøreFolkehøgskule. Everyone is happy to help communicate whatever your language skills.

There are many ways to spend your time here at school and the local area. During the day and afternoon you can choose from a vast range of electives, from summer and winter sports, martial arts and hiking, to history, music and theatre. We also arrange evening activities for those who just can't get enough.

The Norwegian Folk High School

What is a Folk High School? Briefly, a Folk High School is a school which has the freedom to work with the topics and questions the students and staff feel relevant to study. The Folk High School has no set curriculum and no formal examinations. Unlike the "normal" school, Folk High Schools are not bound by centrally standardised curriculum. Each school determines its own activities in view of the ideological and educational profile of the school.

The Folk High School claims to be pedagogically the freest school in the world. The recognition of ideological freedom as a characteristic feature of Folk High Schools continues to be the basic resource in present-day Folk High School activity.

The pedagogic idea

The folk high school movement is a characteristically Nordic phenomenon. The idea of the Folk High School can be tracked back to Nikolai F. S. Grundtvig, a Danish priest, historian, poet and public educator (1783-1872). He presented the vision of a "School for Life" as opposed to the formal, rigid secondary and higher education of his own time. His dialectics are universal, and the means of transmitting them is known as "the Living Word". Thus, neither reading nor lectures are the primary methods for obtaining knowledge at a Folk High School, but dialogue, debate and discussions are.

The interaction which is found in dialogue, between students and between students and teachers, was for Grundtvig an important principle within education. It is a principle which still marks the life of Folk High Schools today.

Each one of us, as a unique individual, has personal experience, and therefore something to offer in conversation. It is this deeply democratic view of mankind which is the basic principle of Folk High Schools.

An important characteristic of the Folk High School, is that education is seen as valuable in itself. People are offered knowledge and experiences that can change their way of thinking. It is a general premise that one should be an active agent in social change.

At present

Today the goal of the Folk High School mainly is to offer general education both to young people and adults, and its courses cover a wide spectrum of subjects. Most of them are humanistic or aesthetic subjects. The lessons are usually divided in three areas: Common lessons/activities, main course/ electives. The schools are residential, and thus social life at such a school is seen as an important part of the educational programme, promoting, amongst other things, a sense of personal awareness and social responsibility

Folk High Schools offer a unique opportunity to enhance each individual's human resources. The schools constitute small, educational societies where each individual makes a difference. Studying in a warm and open environment, working closely with fellow students and staff stimulates personal growth and development.

You live at a Folk High School, and eat, work, and celebrate together. You learn something from all this, during as well as outside the classes. Everything from private matters to global topics will be debated and questioned.

Continuous Admission

The Folk High Schools are available to everyone whatever their educational background. The greatest number of people attending Folk High Schools are young adults. There are foreign students attending almost every Folk High School.

The Norwegian Folk High Schools give no vocational or professional training and grant no formal academic credits. But you get a year of worthwhile personal experience and a certificate upon completion.

The goal of the Folk High School movement in the future, is the fight for democracy, inter-cultural understanding and Human rights, and for discussion and dialogue between equals for building up a more righteous society. The Folk High School is an opening to the future.