Information for young people and guardians who participate in research about Flyt

In the research project "GameChanger", the research institutes NOVA (OsloMet), the Frisch Centre and NORCE want to find out what initiatives that take place outside school, such as the Flyt Programme, mean for school results and completion of upper secondary education. We will use different methods to investigate this.

Because there are more people who want a place in Flyt than there are places for, who gets a place in Flyt in the school years 2025/26 and 2026/27 will be drawn randomly . The research applies to both young people who are selected for Flyt (get a place), and those who do not.

In the research, we will look at registered information on performance and absence in school, on participation and completion of upper secondary education, and on employment income after upper secondary school. We will compare this information for those who get a place in Flyt with information about young people who were not selected to participate.

We will also ask the young people how they are doing, about their schoolwork and what they think about their future. We do the latter both by means of surveys to everyone who participates in the research – both those who participate in Flyt and those who are not selected to participate. In addition, we will talk (do interviews) with a small selection of young people.

All guardians and young people who have expressed interest in participating in Flyt in the school years 2025/26 and 2026/27 have received information about the research that applies to them, and they have been given the opportunity to answer whether they want to participate or not.

If guardians and young people have not agreed to participate in the research, we will not collect registry data or invite young people to respond to surveys.

Guardians and young people who have agreed to participate, but who wish to withdraw later, can at any time contact:

• Head of Research, Mira Sletten, by e-mail or tel. 402 26 973
• Flyt, see the contact information at their website (flyt.no)

Below you will find more information about how data and personal data are collected, processed and stored.

An important point of the research project is to compare those who get a place in Flyt with those who do not. To be able to find the effects of participating in Flyt, it is therefore very important that young people who are not selected to participate in Flyt are also involved in the research.

To investigate whether Flyt leads to better school results, completion of upper secondary education and participation in working life in the long term, we will extract information from the National Population Register and from the Norwegian Education Database and the Norwegian Tax Administration both about young people who are admitted to Flyt and young people who are not selected to participate. 

This is information that Statistics Norway (SSB) collects every year from schools, municipalities and counties.

Information from Statistics Norway up to four times

We will ask Statistics Norway for information until the participants are 22 years old. We plan for the information to be retrieved up to four times: Once after the young people have finished primary and lower secondary school, once while they are of upper secondary school age, and once when the young people are at an age that indicates that many have completed upper secondary education (19-22 years).

This will include information about the municipality and which school they attend, gender, points on national tests, grades and absence (from primary and secondary education), whether they start upper secondary education, whether they choose study or vocational qualifications, and whether they complete upper secondary education.

Information from the Tax Administration

In addition, we will request information from the Tax Administration in order to study future participation in working life in the form of employment income. 

The researchers will receive this information in a way that makes it impossible for them to identify the participants directly (i.e. the registry data will not be linked to direct personal data such as name or national identity number).

To carry out the project, we need to securely store the name, national identity number and telephone number of all the young people who have agreed to take part in the research, in a participant register. Because the participants are under 18, we will also obtain consent from parents/guardians for the young people's participation in the research. We will therefore also store the name of at least one parent/guardian in a consent form.

As part of recruitment to Flyt and the research, information about Flyt and the research project will be sent to all parents/guardians of young people who have expressed interest in Flyt. This information states that a parent/guardian must give consent to participation in the research before the young person can be entered into the draw for a place on the Flyt programme. The information will include a link/QR code that parents/guardians can use to give consent digitally to the young person's participation in the research project.

In the consent form, they will be asked to provide the young person's name, national identity number (used to retrieve register data) and telephone number (used to send out questionnaire surveys), as well as the name of the school and class the young person attends. If the parent/guardian gives consent digitally, we will also collect the email address and name of the person giving consent, as this is necessary in order to use the system.

After a parent/guardian has given consent, the young person will receive a text message (SMS) with a link to a questionnaire. At the start of the questionnaire there will be information about the research and what participation involves. By answering "yes" to wanting to take part in the research and by completing the first questionnaire, they are entered into the draw for a place on Flyt.
During recruitment, Flyt staff will have access to lists of who has submitted consent (name and school). All personal data is transferred and stored securely.

The reason we need the national identity number is that Statistics Norway (SSB) uses it to link register data together. Researchers will only be given register data that does not directly identify participants. So although the researchers have access to the name, national identity number and telephone number of participants in the research project, they cannot link this information to the register data.

It will be carried out:

1. two rounds of surveys for both the Flyt and the control group. The first of these is carried out in schools before it has been decided who has been selected for Flyt or control group, the second is carried out during upper secondary education.
2. two extra rounds of surveys only for young people who are selected to participate in Flyt (both surveys will be carried out during the 10th grade in connection with the young people's participation in Flyt).

The young people choose whether they want to answer each of these surveys, but to be in the draw for a place in Flyt, they must participate in the first survey.

The surveys will include questions about well-being at and outside school, what the young people think about their schoolwork, tasks they must solve and collaborate with others, what they think their future will be like, and what expectations and experiences they have had at Flyt.

The surveys are carried out by the young people logging in to Nettskjema via a link. Nettskjema has been 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.

At the very beginning of the questionnaire, the young people will be asked to enter their phone number and name. The telephone number and name will be used to link responses from the various rounds of surveys and to the linking of survey and registry data.

In practical terms, it will be Statistics Norway that links survey and registry data. Statistics Norway will (in a secure manner) receive national identity numbers and telephone numbers from the Frisch Centre and survey data connected to telephone numbers from NOVA.

Statistics Norway will use national identity numbers and telephone numbers to link registry information and survey data without the researchers being able to see any registry information that can directly identify the young people.

Registry data that is linked to data from the surveys is stored on a secure server at the Frisch Centre. Individual researchers from NOVA will have access.

In the research project, we also want to talk with some young people and their guardians about how they have experienced Flyt. If you are asked to participate in such an interview, you will be given 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 participate, you will be asked what Flyt has meant and what you will take with you from your participation in Flyt. Audio recordings will be made from the interviews. These audio recordings will be stored on a secure server and deleted after minutes of the conversations have been written. Information from the interviews should not be linked to data from the surveys or registry data.

We will only talk to the guardians once, but we want to interview the young people who participate in the qualitative interviews again in about a year. Therefore, we must keep a list of phone numbers of those who attend the first round of interviews. This list of phone numbers will be deleted after the second interviews have been completed.

The information about you will be stored on a secure server, and only project employees associated with the research project at NOVA and NORCE will have access to audio recordings and phone numbers.

We are permitted to process personal data about you because it will be used for research that is important to society. The research institutes NOVA (OsloMet), the Frisch Centre and NORCE, together with Flyt (The Crown Prince Couple's Fund), are jointly responsible for processing personal data about you in this project:

• NOVA and NORCE are responsible for the qualitative interviews.
• NOVA and the Frisch Centre are responsible for the register study, the collection of consents, and the creation of the participant register and questionnaires.

Flyt staff will help collect consents, help follow up the completion of the questionnaires, and register who is taking part in Flyt. They will also use your name and telephone number, and the school and class you attend, to contact you if you are selected to take part in Flyt. Flyt staff will not see your answers to the questionnaires or the register data.

To collect consents and questionnaire data, we use a secure system for conducting surveys (Nettskjema) and storing data (TSD), which is developed and operated by the University of Oslo (UiO). NOVA (OsloMet) has entered into a data processing agreement with UiO.

Statistics Norway (SSB) will use your national identity number and telephone number to link register data and questionnaire data together, without the researchers being able to see information that directly identifies you.

We will only use the information as described here and in the information letter to parents/guardians and young people. After 2034, the personal data will be deleted. No one will be able to recognise you in the project's public reports.

For as long as you can be identified in the data material, you have the right to request access to the information we hold about you, to request that it be corrected or deleted, and to object to the processing. We will provide an explanation if we are unable to identify you or if your rights cannot be exercised. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) about how we process your data.