Ungdomshøjskolen ved Ribe

In the middle of the village of Vester Vedsted there has been a living, free school for over 100 years.

It was built as a secondary school (one of the Kongeå schools) in 1895. After the Second World War, a camp school was run in the buildings. In 1961 Jens Kristian and Annemarie La Cour Madsen buy the school buildings to first run a junior high school for a few years until in 1965 they get permission for an experimental scheme to create a folk high school for the very young. An experiment that lasted 3 years, and which was so successful that the youth folk high schools became a permanent system, and thus written into the High School Law in 1970. Ever since 1965, there has been a youth folk high school for the young people here.

Much has changed since the beginning, but the very basic values ​​and terms are still the same to this day:

• The youth folk high school at Ribe’s fundamental values ​​are openness, human respect, responsibility and community in a safe environment.
• The youth folk high school at Ribe sees personal development, professional development and social development as prerequisites for each other.
• The college is a unified campus in the middle of the village of Vester Vedsted; Student rooms, common areas, teaching facilities/workshops and teachers’ accommodation are located together in one place.
• The college has both male and female students. The students are young adults.
• The domestic community is a core value; All students live at the college and are part of the special community that is created there.
• We work with democratic education, willingness and ability to cooperate and the maturity of young people.
• The folk high school students experience a high degree of voluntariness and freedom of choice.
• In the folk high school’s teaching, you will find highly qualified teachers and small class sizes.