Event: Debate

What world of possibilities?

In the autumn of 2020 – while the pandemic was still raging – the Storting’s report on student mobility called “A world of opportunities” came out. The foreword to the message states: “Spring 2020 has clearly shown us how dependent we are on each other and how intertwined the world is. International cooperation and dialogue across national borders are prerequisites for being able to handle the major global social challenges the world is facing. Global challenges require global solutions.” Just over two years later, tuition fees were introduced for students from countries outside Europe and the result is markedly fewer international students at Norwegian universities. This is part of a larger picture where support for collaboration with higher education institutions and researchers in the global south is cut or reduced (e.g. NORGLOBAL and NORPART). What are the immediate consequences of this for the quality of education and research? Should we see these policy changes as something more than domestic education and research policy? What long-term consequences could this have for the labor market and Norway’s international relations? At Arendalsuka, we invite you to a discussion about who the Norwegian authorities have in mind when exchange and academic cooperation are to contribute to finding global solutions to global challenges.

Please click on the link bellow for more details:

https://www.arendalsuka.no/programsok/details/25007

Development Research Funding: Considerable cuts taking place in Sweden, Norway follows similar measurements

  • About two-thirds of respondents (65%) say their work was either discontinued or significantly altered as a result of the funding cuts.
  • 48% of the respondents in research/academia have adjusted their research in response to the funding cuts. Respondents are reportedly shifting their research focus to topics more likely to attract funding and more relevant to the Global North.
  • 93% of respondents believe that the impacts of the cuts for the Global South are negative – both in the short and long term.

Click on the link bellow to read the full article