Traditionally, a large number of vocational colleges (institutions responsible for vocational education and training) were authorised by the Danish Ministry of Education to provide particular programmes of short-cycle professional higher education in addition to their main activity of offering vocational education and training programmes at upper secondary level.
From 2000 to 2008, most of the vocational colleges offering short-cycle higher education cooperated within regional "vocational academies". In Danish this cooperation structure was called erhvervsakademi, not to be confused with the higher education institution type of erhvervsakademi (academy of professional higher education, now: business academy) introduced in 2009.
Responsibility for the higher education programmes located at vocational colleges was transferred to the new academies of professional higher education (business academies). In some cases vocational colleges teaching was delegated to the vocational college during the first few years.
See also:
- Vocational colleges offering short-cycle higher education as part of a business academy "light"
- Business academies