10 Economic and administrative consequences

10.1 Economic consequences

The Government wants student mobility of between one and three months to trigger performance-based funding in the funding system for universities and university colleges. This will have implications for the budget in the Ministry of Education and Research’s areas of responsibility. Today, only a small proportion of the students who go abroad on a mobility stay go for a period shorter than three months. According to the Ministry of Education and Research’s estimates, the performance-based funding for these students, based on the current rates for student exchange, will amount to approximately NOK 13 million. The Government will determine when the change will be introduced at a later date, in the ordinary national budgets.

This white paper calls for a major cultural change, such that international student mobility becomes an integral part of all programmes of study. This requires good digital systems, primarily to handle applications for and recognition of mobility stays abroad, but also in terms of providing information in general. In the national budget for 2020, NOK 1 million has been allocated to Unit (the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research) for the work to boost the digitalisation of the study administrative systems.

The Government will amend the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund’s (Lånekassen) educational grant support schemes for students abroad so that they provide stronger incentives for students to go abroad for a study or training period or take full-degree education in Norway’s priority partner countries in the field of education.

The changes to the student support schemes will be funded by reducing the number of foreign institutions that entitle students to an additional grant. The changes will be presented in the annual budget proposals. Students who are already taking an education that entitles them to an additional grant will retain this right even if the institution they are studying at is removed from the list.

In the national budgets for 2020 and 2021, NOK 15 million a year has been allocated to the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku) to strengthen the higher education institutions’ work on increasing the proportion of students who spend a learning period abroad. The funds will be used in line with the Government’s ambitions as described in this white paper, including for pilot projects to increase mobility in the educations regulated by a national curriculum.

The Government proposes that Norway participate in the EU Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport (Erasmus+) in the period 2021–2027, but will not make a final decision on this until the EU’s long-term financial framework has been adopted.

In the event of a final decision to participate in Erasmus+ from 2021, the Government will present a proposition of consent to the Storting on participation in Erasmus+ with a view to incorporation into the EEA Agreement no later than July 2021. The Government will return to the budgetary implications in the annual national budgets (cf. also the discussion in Proposition no. 1 to the Storting (2020–2021) chapter 288, item 74, from the Ministry of Education and Research for the budget proposal for 2021).

The Government points out in the current white paper that, in the event of a final decision to participate in Erasmus+ from 2021, it will be assessed whether other measures are needed to ensure good Norwegian participation in Erasmus+. This means, among other things, that the Government will assess the need to increase the administrative funding to Diku and the Directorate of Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) to deal with a larger budget for and increased activity linked to Erasmus+, whether to introduce stimulation funds to increase Norway’s participation, and whether supplementary funds ought to be provided to increase the impact of Norway’s participation for society in general. Furthermore, the white paper states that it will be assessed whether there is a need for project establishment support and stimulation measures to increase training mobility. The Government will return to these proposals and how any measures will be translated into concrete terms and implemented in the annual budget proposals.

Pilot projects that will give students greater predictability in terms of information about the requirements that the Directorate of Health attaches importance to when recognising professional qualifications from abroad shall be financed within the budget frameworks of the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Health and Care Services.

The other measures in the white paper do not have budgetary implications, or they will be implemented within the current budget frameworks.

10.2 Administrative consequences

The Government expects that the goals, priorities and expectations presented in this white paper will in the long term contribute to a cultural change in the higher education sector so that international mobility becomes an integral part of all study programmes, making it possible to achieve the Government’s goal that half of all graduates from Norwegian higher education will have had a learning period abroad, where this kind of international mobility will yield good learning outcomes and is practically feasible. Further, the Government has an ambition that a system will be introduced whereby students must actively opt out of a learning period abroad, as opposed to having to opt in. This reorganisation of the study programmes shall take place within the institutions’ own budgetary frameworks, and the individual universities and university colleges will be able to implement these changes at different paces. The Government is therefore proposing that the institutions decide how and when to introduce a system of “active opt-out”. The Ministry of Education and Research will follow up on the targets, priorities and expectations presented in this white paper in its management dialogue with the universities, university colleges, the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku), the National Body for Quality in Education (NOKUT) and the Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research (Unit).

Changes to the educational support scheme will necessitate changes in regulations and will have administrative consequences for the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund’s (Lånekassen) management of the scheme.