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The university colleges do a better job of internationalization
During the 2002-03 academic year, 5239 students received financial support for completing part of their studies abroad as a link in their education at a Norwegian school. The university colleges despatched 50% more students than the universities did. "That's fantastic," says StL leader Anne Marte Klubbenes. "The university colleges have made great strides in the work of internationalization."
Altogether, more than 20,000 students received support from the State Educational Loan Fund for studying abroad last year. 15,000 of them even got a degree abroad. Of those whose stay was a part of their Norwegian education, 3181 came from the university colleges, and 2091 from the universities.
StL once criticized the university colleges for not doing all they could to give students a shot at an exchange programme. Now it's a different story. "The university colleges are clearly more adept than the universities at integrating student exchanges into Norwegian study programmes. That's a surprise, but quite a pleasant one," a satisfied Klubbenes tells us.
Non-traditional exchange countries
The English-speaking countries are the most popular venues, both for those who do all their studying abroad and those who do only some of it abroad. Nevertheless, there are more students doing some of their studies abroad who choose non-traditional host countries, compared with those who do all their studies abroad. For example, some choose to study in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
More often than not, those doing only part of their studies abroad choose non-English-speaking host countries within Europe. Whereas those who take some of their degree studies abroad constitute a relatively small percentage of the total number of Norwegian students in the English-speaking countries, about 50% of the Norwegian students in Germany and 67% of Norwegians studying in Spain do all their studies there.
"StL would like to see a better distribution of countries to which Norwegian students travel to study. It's important that not all those studying abroad choose English-speaking countries with cultures similar to our own," says Klubbenes. She believes that some students' non-traditional choices are the result of a deliberate strategy on the part of the international offices at Norwegian universities and university colleges.
Poland a popular venue
For a number of years, now, Poland and Hungary have witnessed a sharp rise in the number of Norwegian students studying medicine. For Poland, the numbers continue to grow. The rise there has stood at 9%, whereas in Hungary the number of medical students during the 2002-03 academic year was practically the same as for the previous year.
The number of architecture students studying abroad is growing rapidly. From 2001-02 to 2002-03 it rose at a rate of 35%. 64% of Norwegian architecture students studying abroad are studying in Denmark.
These figures are taken from the Loan Fund's website.
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