NOMA reports and statistics

Summary of developments in 2007

Transfer of activities out of Norway

The change from a Fellowship Programme centred on activities in Norway - to the new NOMA programme with its goal of establishing collaborative Master programmes in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East has gone better than many skeptics expected. Norwegian institutions, both universities and university colleges, responded keenly in both 2006 and 2007, despite initial concerns about economic compensation.

The transition to the new programme is not complete, however. At the time of writing, many of the Portfolio I master programmes are in the process of recruiting students for the second cohort, while projects under portfolio II are in the process of preparing for the intake of cohort I.

Regional Programmes

The NOMA programme objectives are to support the development of Master programmes at higher education institutions in the South through support of regional Master programmes. This process is well under way. Not only are a majority of the NOMA programmes located in partner countries in Asia and Africa , with degrees to be awarded by their universities but they are also multilateral in their organisation. Expected spin-offs in the future, are the establishment of similar master programmes at additional partner countries or recruitment of additional regional students to the already existing programmes. Concentration of NOMA activity

Balance between academic fields

Eight main fields of study are eligible for support by NOMA. The composition of the current portfolio has a large share of projects in the fields of environment and development and health; followed next by oil and energy; education; good governance and democracy. There is at present only one programme in peace and conflict resolution. HIV/aids and gender however, are only represented as modules in several of the master programmes.

Continuation and renewal

The project document allows for support to programmes already anchored in Asian, African, Latin American or Middle Eastern institutions in order to ensure their sustainability. According to this criterion, three projects from the Courses in the South portfolio (established under the previous Norad Fellowship programme) have received support from the NOMA Board. These projects have been evaluated as having made a major contribution to competence and capacity building in the South in the fields of health informatics and oil / energy.