News

The Centre will take a broad approach and provide relevant information for ongoing collaborative projects between Nordic institutions and institutions in Southern Africa. A delegation from UiB spearheaded by the Rector and the Vice-Rector for International Relations took part in the founding ceremony for the centre in Cape Town on 15 and 16 January at which six other universities from the Nordic countries and Southern Africa were represented in addition to the host institution, the University of the Western cape.

“The Centre represents something completely new in that it is institutions in higher education and research that have themselves taken the initiative for and founded the Centre. The Centre’s activities will be based on values such as democracy, social equality and academic involvement, and it will be based on the deep trust between the two regions that has been built up over many years,” says Mette Myrmell Torrissen, Head of the Department of Academic Affairs.

The Centre’s first annual conference, which will be held from 6 to 8 December in Cape Town, has been given the title ”Higher Education, Research and Development: Shifting Challenges and Opportunities”. However, the most important project at present is to develop a good web portal for the Centre, and UiB will be responsible for drawing up the specification for it. In that connection, a workshop is planned at UiB on 22 - 23 February.