The Norwegian Programme for Development, Research and Education (NUFU) organized the one week conference in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, last week. The NUFU-programme is financed by Norad and coordinated by the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation and Higher Education in Bergen.
- This conference is held once every five years and is a great opportunity for universities, both from African partner universities and Norwegian universities to meet, exchange experiences and make new contacts, says Nilson. An increased focus on south-south cooperation and development of new master programmes seems to be the trend:
- There is more focus on Norwegian assistance for developing master programmes at African Universities at the moment. There is also more focus on south-south cooperation; for many students this will be a more relevant experience, says Nilson.
“Sandwich programmes”
Relevant for Ethiopia in the years to come is research projects and capacity building involving hydro power and clean energy in collaboration with the Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU) in Trondheim. A new master degree programme in hydro power is currently being developed in Nepal, and the Ethiopian delegation from Hawassa University and Addis Ababa University met with the Nepalese delegation in order to discuss possibilities for collaboration. Another relevant programme for Ethiopia is the new Climate Change Introduction Course provided by the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB). So far this is being conducted in Nepal and Bangladesh.
- The increased focus on south-south cooperation will make the universities stronger, believes Nilson. Currently, many Universities in African countries knows more about the opportunities of cooperation with universities in the north, rather than their African counterparts. There is also an increased focus on the so-called “sandwich-programmes” – where a student takes part of the degree at a Norwegian university, but finishing at his or her home university.
Issue of “brain drain”
During the conference the issue of brain drain was also discussed.
- The brain drain is an important challenge – but the conference revealed that this could also lead to something positive, if you use the academic diaspora. The universities in Norway can make it easier for the staff to go back and teach for shorter periods. The diaspora can also be instrumental in forging more cooperation between universities.
- One challenge is to focus more on how to make the home university more attractive, this will make it easier to get academic diaspora to go back for periods, says Nilson.
There will also be more focus on phd-programmes – and the use of ITC will be given more attention in the higher education cooperation. Another issue that was raised during the conference is women’s role.
- Currently women are underrepresented and the conference focused on how we can do something about this. One suggestion that was mentioned is a dedicated NUFU-budget towards women and for instance increasing the time period women get to do their phd because of factors such as child births etc, says Nilson. Because of the long, strong links between Norway and Ethiopia, the country is one of the african countries with most NUFU/NOMA-programmes. (NOMA being the development of MA-programmes)