line. This division was the backbone of the structure of the Gymnasium (i.e. academic general upper secondary education programme) until the year 2005. In 1894, the Folkeskole ("public school", the government-funded primary education system) was formally established (until then, it had been known as Almueskolen ("common school")), and measures were taken to improve the education system to meet the requirements of industrial society. In 1903, the 3-year course of the Gymnasium was directly connected the municipal school through the establishment of the ('middle school', grades 6–9), which was later on replaced by the realskole. Previously, students wanting to go to the Gymnasium (and thereby obtain qualification for admission to university) had to take private tuition or similar means as the municipal schools were insufficient. In 1975, the was abandoned and the Folkeskole (primary education) transformed into an egalitarian system where pupils go to the same schools regardless of their academic merits. Recently, some political parties (e.g. Social Democrats and Liberal Alliance) have advocated extending the time of compulsory education from nine to twelve years. Compulsory education The () covers the entire period of compulsory education, from the age of 5 - 6 to 15 - 16, encompassing pre-school, primary and lower secondary education. Secondary education Secondary education usually takes two to four years and is attended by students between the ages of 15 - 16 and 18 - 19. Secondary education is not compulsory, but usually free of charge, and students have a wide range of programmes to choose from. Some education programmes are academically oriented, the most common being the Gymnasium. Others are more practically oriented, training students for jobs as e.g. artisans or clerks through a combination of instruction in vocational schools and apprenticeship. In Denmark students have three attempts to finish their secondary education; from there on they are left on their own. If they wish to continue from here on, they are allowed to get an education but no longer with any economic support from the government. Post-secondary education Higher education in Denmark can take place at a number of different institutions that offer educations of different types. Only universities offer education at the master level, while university colleges offer certain bachelor degrees, but may collaborate with a university to offer a master level degree (such as the MA in Journalism at Aarhus University being a collaboration with the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Bachelor