Longitudinal studies in education: The Norwegian experience

Abstract

Users of Norwegian education statistics need longitudinal data to follow up special groups of population and measure their social exclusion. To this purpose, Statistics Norway has built up a data system around cohorts that completed one type of education, linking several registers together with the National Identification Number. The largest difference between Statistics Norway's system and most longitudinal studies is that this is not a survey but a total overview of a cohort. Each individual in the system is followed up for a period of 15 years, and information on education in progress and education completed during this period is assembled together. Special attention must be given to planning ahead the use of the data, creating a set of secondary but strategic variables that summarize and develop the longitudinal events. Analysis and presentation are easier to tackle, when they have provided the guidelines for both linkage and data structure.