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Norway: Diku becomes Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills

ACA’s member The Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku), Skills Norway, and Universell, as well as parts of Unit and the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD), have merged on 1 July 2021 into a new organisation – the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. The directorate will also be taking over selected tasks from the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT).  

 This institutional development aims to bring the management of various grant schemes, previously spread over several institutions in Norway, under one roof, and provide additional coherence between funding instruments as well as easier access for beneficiaries. The new organisation is the executive agency of the Ministry of Education and Research within the higher education and higher vocational education sectors and is responsible for the national skills policy. The directorate will advise the ministry, implement national policies, and coordinate incentive schemes and management instruments in Norway. Internationalisation is high on the agenda at all educational levels, the organisation having a mandate to increase participation in international experience for a wider pool of people.  

The organisation is led by the newly appointed Director General, Sveinung Skule, who joins the directorate from the position of Director of Skills Norway, and is 55 years old. Prior to this role, Mr. Skule served, inter alia, as Managing Director of the Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), Research Director at the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Science (now Oslo Metropolitan University), and Deputy Director General at the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. 

 ACA looks forward to a continued successful collaboration, for mutual enhancement.