The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (
SIU), the Norwegian Agency for Digital Learning in Higher Education (
Norgesuniversitetet) and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (
PKU) will merge into one organisation with effect from 1 January 2018.
The new organisation is intended to promote quality in universities and university colleges, tertiary vocational education and artistic research through national and international incentive schemes. This objective will also be achieved through internationalisation in primary and secondary education.
The new organisation does not have a name yet, but what is certain is that it will have about 110 employees and will be led by SIU Director General Harald Nybølet. The head office will be in Bergen, and the organisation will also have an office in Tromsø.
While the merging will not affect the high quality of the services and activities of SIU, Norgesuniversitetet and PKU respectively, the new organisation will also be assigned several new tasks. It will be responsible for establishing a new national arena for quality in higher education and will take over responsibility for the Textbook Committee from the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR) and for the Centres of Excellence in Higher Education (SFU) and the awards for quality of education from the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT). The transfer of the SFU scheme will take place gradually.
