Contract education

Contract education is an educational programme that has been commissioned from a HEI and is based on an agreement drawn up between the commissioner and the HEI. A company, for instance, may commission a tailor-made course for its employees’ continual professional development. Contract education is a form of education that does not form part of normal higher education and is subject to the regulations in a special ordinance, the Ordinance on Contract Education at Higher Education Institutions (2002:760).

Neither the Higher Education Act nor the Higher Education Ordinance apply to contract education, which means that a student in a programme of this kind does not have the same rights as a students in normal higher education at a HEI.

If the same standards applied to the contract education as to corresponding higher education courses or programmes, grades and degree or course certificates may be issued to people who participate in contract education pursuant to the regulations on first and second-cycle higher education.