Mobility and

international standards

Since 2003 the University of Bergen , like all the other Norwegian universities as well as many European universities, has been undergoing a wide-ranging reform process.

The aims of this process have included increasing crossborder student mobility, improving the transition from university education to the labour market, and assuring the quality of the education offered.

More courses in English

We offer some 60 Bachelor’s and about 100 Master’s programmes in all the traditional academic disciplines. A growing number of courses and programmes are taught in English. These currently comprise 42 full Master’s programmes and about 370 individual first- and higherdegree courses with the widest selection being available in biology, biochemistry and biotechnology, informatics, geology and climate studies, marine studies, informatics and information sciences, medicine and health sciences, mathematics and physics, languages and social sciences. We intend to increase the range of courses offered in English over the next few years.

The University of Bergen puts a high priority on raising the quality of its courses of study. All aspects of teaching will be evaluated with respect to their quality, efficiency and relevance. In February 2004 we established our own teaching quality assurance system in accordance with guidelines set out by the authorities. The system comprises a number of processes, sub-areas and measures that will provide a basis for systematic efforts in teaching quality and maintenance. The system is based on an iterative set-up that includes four phases: planning, implementation, evaluation and correction. Results and evaluations based on these efforts will be submitted to the University Board in an annual Report on Educational Attainments.

Good exchange agreements

In line with the priority areas set out in the Bologna Declaration the University of Bergen is also attempting to increase student mobility and to promote the European dimension in its teaching. Interested students are offered a period of study at a foreign institution as part of their degree. The Bachelor’s programmes have drawn up an international component of specifi c courses at a selected number of cooperating universities of high academic standing. These periods overseas are integrated practically and academically into the study programmes.

The University of Bergen has exchange agreements in place with well-regarded institutions on every continent and it is an active participant in the Erasmus and Nordplus programmes. We wish to strengthen our international profile in higher education in general, and in student mobility in particular, by offering a high level of service to visiting students and to our own students who go abroad to study.

Considerable activity in developing countries

For more than 30 years the University of Bergen has been running a wide range of cooperative academic projects with institutions in developing countries. A continuous line runs between the University’s fi rst major institutional collaboration with the University of Khartoum in the Sudan, which lasted from 1963 to 1969, and our frame agreement with Makerere University in Uganda , which will continue in effect until 2014. While cooperation with the University of Khartoum turned the University of Bergen into the world’s leading institution in research and studies of the Sudan outside of that country itself, our collaboration with Makerere University is in the process of becoming the most binding, comprehensive and longest-lasting institutional cooperative effort that we have ever had, covering cooperation in research and education, student mobility, library development, and personnel and fi nancial management. As the major Norwegian participant in the NUFU cooperation for fifteen years, we have been in a position to provide academic expertise in developing research competence and training large numbers of research staff at our partner institutions in the South.

Two-way transfer of knowledge

With fellowships from the NORAD Fellowship Programme or the Quota Programme, several hundred students from countries in Central and Eastern Europe , Africa , Asia and Latin America have taken their Master’s or doctoral degrees at this university. In the fi rst round of applications for Erasmus Mundus, the EU’s major new programme for European educational cooperation, the University of Bergen was a member of two successful consortia that received approval to offer joint Master’s programmes in international health and water studies/coastal zone management. The Erasmus Mundus programme enables us to accept students from third countries (all countries outwith the EU/EEZ) and offer them good fellowships that allow them to take their Master’s degrees under the umbrella of the joint Master’s programmes. Our collaboration with institutions in developing countries has also been characterised by a two-way transfer of academic knowledge and competence. The University and its partner institutions in the South have been both providers and recipients of academic knowledge. The academic activities of a signifi cant number of students and research staff from the University are solidly rooted in our research and educational cooperation programmes with institutions in the South.

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