HiOA hosting NORHED Conference

NORHED – The Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development – was launched by Norad in 2012 with the aim of strengthening capacity of higher education institutions in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) to educate more and better qualified candidates, and to increase quality and quantity of research conducted by the countries’ own researchers.

60 universities in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and 12 institutions of higher education in Norway collaborate in 46 projects financed by the NORHED programme. Representatives from these institutions will gather at HiOA to discuss topics like university partnerships, the role of universities for development, gender and diversity in higher education and research, the role of higher education and research for the Sustainable Development Goals-agenda, among others.

HiOA is proud to be partner in four NORHED projects. Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences is dedicated to educating professionals of all types of professions such as health workers, engineers, teachers, librarians, journalists etc. Through NORHED, we wish to contribute to developing knowledge in fields vital for future wellbeing both for each individual partner country and the global community.

So, why do we consider the collaboration in programmes like NORHED to be of such great importance?

We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected. A health issue, for instance, such as Ebola or Zika, at one locality, can no longer be considered primarily a local problem. Due to intense global communication, no one can remain unaffected when people elsewhere are being hurt by such crisis. At the same time, we all increasingly draw on the same resources and the same pool of knowledge when acting locally. We learn from each other – across borders and continents. Increasingly, we also live together in cities such as Oslo.

As a global community, we are facing many of the same problems and challenges around the world. Therefore, we need a diversity of perspectives in order to meet the challenges that confront us, for example in order to develop solutions to issues such as global warming or global migration. On the one hand, intercultural competences are necessary to develop political responses. On the other hand, professionals working in areas such as health, engineering, education, the media and so forth need to adapt to communities that are also changing. Globalisation do have consequences for all types of professionals, and therefore also for us as educators of professionals.

The participation in NORHED programmes contributes to helping us develop as an institution. Oslo is becoming a more diverse city and HiOA is a metropolitan institution, located in a region whose demographic structure is more diverse than that of other regions in Norway. This diversity gives us an advantage in understanding and reaping the benefits of diversity. We will stimulate equality and expect tolerance of the life philosophy, cultural background and gender of others.

International cooperation is a key area for Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. Our university strategy states that HiOA shall:

• Cooperate internationally on programmes at all levels, and offer integrated courses of study that hold high levels of quality and student throughput.
• Give priority to international research cooperation that strengthens the quality of research and development

The participation in the NORHED collaboration generates knowledge that participants can bring home to enrich the teaching at the home institutions. University teachers and researchers also need to learn.

First published in Nina Waaler`s blog