What can be done to enable more students to complete secondary school? The project GameChanger focuses on the impact that initiatives outside of school can have on students when they are in school.
Despite a slight increase in completion rates, nearly two in ten students who start upper secondary school do not finish within five years, or within six years for vocational tracks.
The project GameChanger focuses on the impact that initiatives outside of school can have on students when they are in school. Flyt and Guttas Campus are two school-supportive programs designed to prevent dropout by enhancing students' self-esteem, sense of belonging, and resilience in the transition from lower to upper secondary school. These programs target 14-15-year-old students in 10th grade.
In the project, Flyt and Guttas Campus serve as methodological entry points to identify factors crucial for a successful intervention and what it takes to implement effective dropout-prevention initiatives.
To ensure broad institutional and political grounding, the study will be conducted in collaboration with the educational authorities in Oslo and Bergen. The potential to be a true gamechanger for both individuals and schools is the foundation of our project.
Flyt and Guttas Campus are part of a broader array of initiatives aimed at combating social exclusion. However, there is still remarkably little knowledge about which measures are effective, especially those with long-term impact.
Research questions
In GameChanger, we will employ a variety of data sources and methods to answer the following questions:
- What are the effects of supplementary measures outside traditional schools on enabling at-risk youth to complete secondary education?
- How can social entrepreneurs collaborate effectively with schools and school authorities to prevent at-risk youth from dropping out?
Work packages
The project is divided into four main work packages. In Work Package 1, we will use registry data to track the progress of participants in Flyt and Guttas Campus over time, focusing on completion rates and academic performance, while also analyzing the impact of various risk factors.
Work Package 2 centers on the young participants themselves and their experiences in Flyt and Guttas Campus, with a focus on the program's implementation and the institutional conditions needed to ensure its long-term impact.
Work Package 3 is theoretical, examining insights gained from practice and their implications for program theory.
In Work Package 4, we will explore the potential for cooperation between programs, school owners, and social entrepreneurs, discussing the broader applicability of local measures.
The interdisciplinary project team includes researchers from sociology, economics, psychology, and pedagogy, led by Mira Aaboen Sletten and Jon Rogstad at NOVA, OsloMet. In addition to OsloMet, the project partners include NORCE and the Frisch Centre at UiO, along with the educational authorities in Oslo and Bergen and the program owners, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess’ Foundation and Guttas Campus.
The project is funded by The Research Council of Norway.
Information for boys and parents involved in Guttas Campus
In the research project "GameChanger," the research institutes NOVA (OsloMet), Frischsenteret, and NORCE aim to find out what activities outside of school, such as Guttas Campus, mean for school results and completion of upper secondary education. We will use various methods to investigate this.
We will look at registered information about school performance and absenteeism, participation and completion of upper secondary education, and work income after upper secondary education. We will compare this information for participants in Guttas Campus with information for boys who have not participated and who are similar in terms of grades and absenteeism before they joined Guttas Campus.
We will ask the boys what they think about Guttas Campus and how they are doing, about schoolwork, and what they think about their future before and after they participated in Guttas Campus. We will do this both through surveys to all participants and interviews (conversations) with a small selection of boys.
All guardians and participants in Guttas Campus in the school years 2025/26 and 2026/27 have received information (link to the information letter) about the research that concerns them, and they have had the opportunity to respond whether they wish to participate or not. If guardians and boys have not agreed to participate in the research, we will not collect register data, results from skill tests, or invite the boys to answer surveys.
Guardians and participants who have agreed to participate but wish to withdraw later can contact:
- The project leader, Mira Sletten (email: mira.sletten@oslomet.no, phone: 402 26 973)
- Or Guttas Campus (email: post@guttascampus.no, phone: 940 90 288)
Below is more information about how the data is collected, processed, and stored.
Collection and processing of registered information (Registry study)
To investigate whether Guttas Campus leads to better school results, completion of upper secondary education, and participation in the workforce in the long term, we will collect information about the participants from the National Registry and the Norwegian education database. This is information that Statistics Norway (SSB) collects annually from schools, municipalities, and counties. We will request information from SSB until the participants are 22 years old.
We plan to collect the information three times: once after the boys have finished primary school, once while they are of upper secondary school age, and once when the boys are at an age where many have completed upper secondary education (19-22 years).
This will include information about the municipality and which school they attend, scores on national tests, grades and absences (from primary school and upper secondary education), whether they start upper secondary education, whether they choose academic or vocational competence, and whether they complete upper secondary education. In addition, we will request information from the Tax Administration to study future participation in the workforce in terms of employment income.
Researchers will also use registry data from SSB to create a control group of individuals of the same age (who are not part of Guttas Campus), making it possible to determine the effect of participating in Guttas Campus.
Participant registry and consents
To carry out the project, we must securely store the name and personal identification number of all the boys who have agreed to participate in the research in a participant registry. Since the participants are under 18, we will also obtain consent from their guardians for the boys to participate in the research.
Therefore, we will also store the name of at least one parent in a consent form. Like other information in the project, these will be stored on a secure server, and only researchers associated with the research project will have access.
The reason we need personal identification numbers is that SSB uses them to link registry information. Researchers will only receive registry information that does not directly identify the participants. So, even though researchers have access to the names and personal identification numbers of participants in the research project, they cannot link these to the registry information.
The Frisch Centre will be responsible for collecting and storing registry data from SSB. The Frisch Centre will also store and maintain the participant registry and consent forms. Guttas Campus will assist in collecting consents and will create a participant registry based on these, which will be transferred to the Frisch Centre using a secure data transfer solution.
Surveys and information from skill tests
Participants in Guttas Campus who are involved in the research will be asked to answer three electronic surveys. The first is conducted at the intro camp, the second at the end of the learning camp, and the last at a mentoring session organized by Guttas Campus during the 10th grade.
NOVA and NORCE will be responsible for collecting and storing data from the surveys. The surveys will include questions about well-being at and outside of school, what the boys think about schoolwork, tasks they need to solve and collaboration with others, how they think their future will be, and what expectations and experiences they have had at the learning camp.
The surveys are conducted by the boys logging into Nettskjema via a link. Nettskjema is developed by the University of Oslo (UiO) to create and administer online surveys and is considered one of the safest ways to conduct this type of survey.
Each boy receives a unique code from Guttas Campus that they type into the survey at the very beginning. The codes are used to link responses from the surveys with results from skill tests conducted at Guttas Campus and with register data (described above).
Using the codes, the data can be linked together without the researchers knowing who has answered what in the surveys and without being able to identify individual boys in the register data. Guttas Campus will know which codes the boys have received, but they will not have access to data from the surveys or register data.
SSB will receive personal identification number linked to the unique code from Guttas Campus and data from the surveys and skill test data with the unique code linked to it from NOVA. SSB will use personal identification numbers and the code to link register information, data from the surveys, and test results without the researchers seeing information that can directly identify the boys.
Register data linked to data from the surveys and results from skill tests will be stored at Frischsenteret. Individual researchers from NOVA will have access.
Qualitative interviews (conversations) with the researchers
In the research project, we also want to talk to some boys and parents about how they have experienced Guttas Campus.
If you are asked to participate in such an interview, you will receive more information about how the interview is conducted and that you can choose whether you want to participate or not. If you say "yes" to participating, you will be asked questions about what Guttas Campus has meant and what the boys take with them from participating in Guttas Campus.
Audio recordings will be made of the interviews. These audio recordings will be stored in a secure area and deleted after transcripts of the conversations have been made. Information from the interviews will not be linked to data from the surveys, skill data, or register data.
We will only talk to the parents once, but we want to interview the boys who participate in qualitative interviews again after about a year. Therefore, we need to keep a list of phone numbers for those who participate in the first round of interviews. This list of phone numbers will be deleted after the second interview is conducted.
The information about you will be stored on a secure server, and only project staff associated with the research project at NOVA and NORCE will have access to audio recordings and phone numbers.
About privacy and your rights
The research institutes NOVA (OsloMet), Frischsenteret, and NORCE are responsible for processing personal data about you in this project. We will only use the information as described here. After 2034, the personal data will be deleted. No one will recognize you in the public reports from the project.
We are allowed to collect personal data about you because the purpose is research in the public interest. As long as you can be identified in the data material, you have the right to request access to the information we process about you, request that it be corrected or deleted, and to object to the processing. We will provide an explanation if we cannot identify you or if your rights cannot be exercised. You also have the right to complain to the Data Protection Authority about how we process your data.
Participation is voluntary
It is entirely up to you whether you want to participate in the research project. If you do not want to participate, that is perfectly fine and it will not affect you in any way. Those who participate can also withdraw from the research at any time.
Contact Information
If you have questions about the research project or later wish to withdraw from the research, please contact:
- NOVA: Project leader, Mira Sletten, email: mira.sletten@oslomet.no, phone: 402 26 973
- Frischsenteret: Senior researcher, Nina Drange, email: nina.drange@frisch.uio.no, phone: 414 57 945
- Our data protection officers: NOVA (OsloMet), email: personvernombud@oslomet.no, Frischsenteret, email: sverre.kittelsen@frisch.uio.no
Researchers
Partners
- NORCE
- Frisch Centre, University of Oslo
- The Crown Prince and Crown Princess’ Foundation
- Guttas Campus
- Bergen Municipality
- Oslo Municipality
