Exchange Student Information

The Danish government has decided that they no longer will accredit exchange student agencies in Denmark. The number of failed trips has given the Danish government a bad reputation. While it is unfair because the old system only checked up on the Danish part of the entire operation as the authorities had no right to interfere with operations abroad as they are regulated by local authorities, the official approval of individual organization gave a kind of false security to the families who had children who were thinking of taking a year abroad.

It was a situation none could live with. Not the Danish government. No the families who put the safety of their children in jeopardy.

The end came with the unfair treatment of the exchange student who traveled to Gay Mills and was sent home when the foster mom hacked her Facebook account. The criminal act committed by the foster mom led the entire Denmark understand that the exchange student concept must be abandoned.

So what now? Well it is safe to say that the entire system of exchange students is very much a thing which went by in the past. It has no longer a future in Denmark. The business has been exposed and while some organizations like Rotary properly will continue to send students abroad just to make a kind of political statement, parents who are of their right minds will keep their children home.

It is very positive new as the Danish culture is small and very easy to pollute with impressions from the outside world. With fewer young Danes meeting foreign cultures our culture might look forward towards brighter times.


Source:
Orientering om afskaffelse af tilskud til udvekslingsophold for unge under 18 år (The Danish Department of Education - in Danish)

A 17 year old Danish exchange student was sent home from Wisconsin because she had consensual sex with a boy aged the same.

We find that there is a limit to how much you can ask young people to abstract from. If a state has an age limit for consensual relationships which are below the age of the exchange students who will travel there, the exchange student agencies should deny entry to that particular region.

We must urge the companies to refrain referring exchange students from Denmark if they cannot ensure decent conditions for the young people seeking a year abroad.

Just remember how many sacrifices the exchange students must endure:

• They are not allowed to drink alcohol. Not even below the safe limit of 16.5 which have been proved by modern science.
  
• They are not allowed to drive a car even if they have reached the age limit
  
• They are not allowed to use drugs despite the fact that the population in most host countries is overmedicated with prescription medicine compared to Danish conditions
  
• They will attend a school for a full year they under no circumstance would receive credits for because the standard of the Danish education is so much higher. The Danish department of education does not accept schooling outside Denmark because the schools abroad have no social dimension included in the services they provide their students.
  

This case involving the American Exchange student organization CETUSA and the Danish Explorius organization has made us mail all our contacts so we can start a campaign where we will urge parents of potential exchange students no to use those two organizations.

Source:
Havde sex - smidt ud af USA (Ekstra Bladet - article in Danish)

The Danish government has tried to increase the number of students from higher education school like universities who should take one semester abroad but their efforts have been slowed by their own wish to keep the education standard in Denmark as the highest in the world.

5 years ago the Danish parliament passed a law targeted against diploma mills. Under the new law only state accredited schools on friendly term with some officials in the Department of Education in Denmark had the right to call their school a university. Others had to close down, move their activities abroad or simply rename their schools.

Schools like Arabic Open Academy in Copenhagen was not targeted because the called their school an academy. They are still able to provide diplomas on higher education despite the fact that they are not accredited by the Department of Education. Among those who were targeted was a middle school in Copenhagen who had University as part of their name and a group of Artists who published their art using the term “University” as part of their name. European Management University International will move to another country so they can continue their activities. Knightbridge University has sieged their activities which are a huge problem for politicians from third world countries who all have to have a doctor degree to earn respect. Denmark’s reputation as a country that is aiding political stability and education in third world countries has been questioned as result of the new law.

But if you really want the highest education standard in the world you also have to ensure that the students don’t leave the country and return with a diploma from a foreign diploma mil. Evil rumors speak of Copenhagen being mismanaged regarding architecture and city planning because most of the employees in the office responsible for planning and constructing from 1950 to about 1990 all took their education in Sweden during the Second World War but couldn’t prove it due to damages which occurred during the war. If they ever passed their exams remains an open question.

So just to avoid a possible scandal every student is checked very carefully during a year-long process. In fact most have to wait until sometime after they have returned to learn whether their stay abroad is accredited. It is not acceptable seen from the point of view of the student who often has borrowed the money from the family or from a bank. A lot of students give up when they learn of the paperwork they have in front of them.

But what is the alternative? Chaos short to say! Everyone wants to have a paper which state that the final exam is from a Danish University and it has its cost when they have to put their name on such a paper. If you allowed everyone to study the last 6 months in Denmark after they have rested on a beach somewhere and paid for an exam with no academically effort would it not be cheating on a Lance Armstrong level?

Of course and that is why they have to check every single paper – even the one the students use for number two have to be multi-layered so it can be checked so we can keep the reputation of our education system intact.

This page doesn’t focus on higher education. Our purpose is to keep those Danish Exchange Students who take a gab year after passing the elementary school exams before they start their high school years. We have been asked many times why Danish exchange students cannot get credits from their year abroad. Again the answer is: Denmark has a higher education standard. Abroad they don’t take the social aspect of the students into consideration. Can you point at one country beside Denmark who has Friday bars in their high schools where the students can drink a beer of two after school? No, properly not. It is only one example of how important the social aspect is when it comes to education. In Denmark we don’t have school shootings because we don’t allow our students to isolate or marginalize themselves. Of course we have marginalized groups but they are not found in high schools or in universities. They are so to say sorted out from the youth population so they end up in Mcjobs job or on welfare benefits until they learn how to integrate themselves in our society.

We believe that other countries could learn from Denmark. Strict control limiting the number of students going abroad combined with soft social “control” securing that the students learn each other under friendly and relaxed terms lower the number of bullying cases and lonely students with the potentials of going amok.

Until the other countries catch up with implementing Friday bars on their high school campuses we will continue to deny exchange students credits for their time abroad. It is a question of maintaining a high education standard and our country’s good name – nothing less.

Sources:

• En kamp mod fupuniversiteter og diplomfabrikker (Dagbladet Information - In Danish)
  
• Merit-kaos sinker danske studerende (Politiken - in Danish)
  

What do you know about the family you entrust your child to?

Nothing!

You have to rely on that the exchange student agency weight safety over income.

However a number of cases clearly inform us about not only isolated incidents but a pattern of neglect.

Child advocacy groups has published an article naming a number of cases where young exchange students have been raped or otherwise sexual molested by the people they should have their trust in while they are abroad. We are talking members of the host family, school teachers or counselors.

How are you going to ensure your child's safety when it is 1,000 of miles away from your home?

Ask questions - also the difficult ones before it is too late.

References:
Exchange student organizations headed for court (Child advocacy, March 1 - 2006)

A huge problem for exchange students is that some referral agencies fail to inform the coming exchange student that some school districts have mandatory community service as part as their graduation requirements.

For a Danish teenager - existence of the term "community service" can result in suspicion of a criminal record.

Voluntary work exist on paper in Denmark but it is not done for free. Often employees will contribute some hours if the marketing department in their firm ask them to do voluntary work while being full compensated during work hours. Please notice that it is not about the single person giving aid to others. It is about to give an impression that the firm the volunteers work for take on social responsibility which can increase sale. As Danish employees are generally known to be faithful and dedicated in their jobs, most will go the extra mile to advertise their firm as social responsible.

However, Community service is used by Danish courts too and it is done in cases where degrading of the convicted is a part of the sentence. It is causing some problems considering that the European Court of Human right has ruled that a punishment must not be degrading which would be in violation with the Human Rights Convention (Tyrer v- the United Kingdom), but it is still practiced.

So Danish exchange students should ask into what the policy of the school district they will study in has. It is their entire future which is at stake.