Management consists of a board of governors responsible to the Minister of Education both in financial and educational matters. Independent residential schools date back more than 150 years. The purpose of these schools is to provide general youth and adult education on the basis of the Danish tradition of folkeoplysning , whose focal point is the interpretation and meaning of life. Teaching must be of a general educational nature so that individual subjects or subject groups never dominate general aspects. As part of this concept, the schools are residential, and generally the participants help with the cooking, washing up and cleaning.
All residential schools receive subsidies for each full-time participant.
In 1999, there were 94 folk high schools in Denmark attended by approx. 50,000 course participants aged 17 years and above. Courses vary between 1 and 36 weeks. Each school is free to decide the contents of its teaching. Consequently, the subjects offered differ from one school to another.