the norwegian centre for international cooperation in education … · 2019. 5. 16. · published...

Published by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU) November, 2016

Executive Editor: Ragnhild Tungesvik

Editors: Margrete Søvik and Dag Stenvoll

ISBN 978-82-93017-56-1

The report can be downloaded at www.siu.no

Preface

Strategic institutional and academic partnerships have become increasingly important, around the world. The purpose is to allow institutions to expand their activities, benefit from each other’s infra-structure and learn across borders. In line with this, the action Strategic partnership was introduced in the Erasmus+ programme in 2014, to stimulate peer learning and innovation in education across Europe.

The Norwegian Government has high expectations for Norwegian participation in the Erasmus+ pro-gramme. European cooperation in the education field is seen as an important tool to strengthen the quality and relevance of Norwegian education, at all levels. According to the Norwegian Strategy for participation in the Erasmus+ programme (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2016), participation should be utilized to:

develop excellent higher education; reduce drop-out in upper secondary education and improve achievement in basic skills; develop quality in early childhood education and school education; provide more adults with the opportunity of lifelong learning and an increased link to profes-

sional life; stimulate innovation, entrepreneurship and restructuring; increase and improve cooperation between education and the world of work.

This report is part of larger project analysing Norwegian participation in strategic partnerships fund-ed by the Erasmus+ programme. The aim is first to map the Norwegian portfolio, and secondly to analyse more in depth the practices, results and experiences in some selected partnerships. This knowledge is valuable, in order to give informed advice to applicants and participants in the pro-gramme. It will also be valuable to policy makers at the national and European level, as a basis for further improving the programme and its implementation.

The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU) is a public agency owned by the Ministry of Education and Research (KD). SIU is Norway’s official agency for international pro-grammes and initiatives related to education at all levels. As a centre of expertise, one of SIU’s most important tasks is to broaden and strengthen the knowledge base for further internationalisation of Norwegian education through reports and analyses.

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Table of contents

TABLES AND FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................... 6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 8

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 10

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT AND GOALS OF ERASMUS+ ..................................................................................... 11

ERASMUS+, KEY ACTION 2 AND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ........................................................................... 14

IMPACT AND OUTCOMES ......................................................................................................................................... 14

TYPES OF PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................ 15

PARTNERSHIPS IN THE SCHOOL EDUCATION SECTOR ..................................................................................... 17

TYPES OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN THE SCHOOL SECTOR ........................................................................................... 17

APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATE, SCHOOL SECTOR ...................................................................................................... 18

PROJECTS, COORDINATING ORGANISATIONS AND GRANTS AWARDED, SCHOOL SECTOR......................................................... 19

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS ........................................................................................................ 21

ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS ......................................................................................................................... 22

COUNTRIES OF COOPERATION IN SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................... 23

PRIORITIES AND TOPICS IN SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS ........................................................................................................ 24

NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN SCHOOL PROJECTS .............................................................................................................. 26

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (VET) ............................................. 34

APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATE, VET SECTOR .......................................................................................................... 35

PROJECTS, COORDINATING ORGANISATIONS AND GRANTS AWARDED, VET ........................................................................ 35

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN VET PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................ 37

ACTIVITIES IN VET PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................................. 37

COUNTRIES OF COOPERATION IN VET PARTNERSHIPS .................................................................................................... 38

PRIORITIES AND TOPICS IN VET PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................ 39

NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN VET PROJECTS .................................................................................................................. 41

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION........................................................................................ 46

APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATE, HE SECTOR ............................................................................................................ 46

PROJECTS, COORDINATING ORGANISATIONS AND GRANTS AWARDED, HE .......................................................................... 47

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN HE PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................................. 49

ACTIVITIES IN HE PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................................... 49

COUNTRIES OF COOPERATION IN HE PARTNERSHIPS ...................................................................................................... 50

PRIORITIES AND TOPICS IN HE PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................................. 51

NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN HE PROJECTS .................................................................................................................... 53

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN ADULT EDUCATION ......................................................................................... 57

APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATE, ADULT EDUCATION SECTOR ....................................................................................... 58

PROJECTS, COORDINATING ORGANISATIONS AND GRANTS AWARDED, ADULT EDUCATION ..................................................... 58

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS ......................................................................................... 59

ACTIVITIES IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS .......................................................................................................... 60

COUNTRIES OF COOPERATION IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS ................................................................................. 60

PRIORITIES AND TOPICS IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS.......................................................................................... 61

NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN ADULT EDUCATION PROJECTS ................................................................................................ 62

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STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ADDRESSING MORE THAN ONE SECTOR, 2014 .................................................... 65

LOOKING ACROSS SECTORS ............................................................................................................................ 68

SUCCESS RATE ....................................................................................................................................................... 68

SIZE OF PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................................................ 69

ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................................................ 69

TOPICS AND PRIORITIES ........................................................................................................................................... 70

COUNTRIES OF COOPERATION .................................................................................................................................. 70

GRANTS TO COORDINATORS AND PARTNERS ................................................................................................................ 73

NORWEGIAN INSTITUTIONS ACTIVE IN MORE THAN ONE PARTNERSHIP .............................................................................. 74

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Tables and figures TABLE 1: APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATES IN 2014-16, SCHOOL SECTOR .......................................................................... 18

TABLE 2: PARTNERSHIPS IN THE SCHOOL SECTOR SELECTED IN 2014 .................................................................................... 19



TABLE 5: TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN SCHOOLS ONLY PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ....................................................................... 21

TABLE 6: TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN STANDARD FORMAT SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ..................................................... 21

TABLE 7: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION (EXCLUDING SCHOOLS ONLY PARTNERSHIPS), ACTIVITIES 2014 .......... 22

TABLE 8: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR SCHOOLS ONLY, ACTIVITIES 2014 ............................................................................ 22

TABLE 9: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION (EXCLUDING SCHOOLS ONLY PARTNERSHIPS), ACTIVITIES 2015 .......... 23

TABLE 10: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR SCHOOLS ONLY, ACTIVITIES 2015 .......................................................................... 23

TABLE 11: PRIORITIES IN THE SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ......................................................................................... 25

TABLE 12: TOPICS IN THE SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 .............................................................................................. 26

TABLE 13: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN SCHOOL PROJECTS (KA201) COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2014 ..................... 27

TABLE 14: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN SCHOOLS ONLY PROJECTS (KA219) COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2015 ............ 28

TABLE 15: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN STANDARD FORMAT SCHOOL PROJECTS (KA201) COORD. BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2015 ... 29

TABLE 16: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN SCHOOLS ONLY PROJECTS (KA219) COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2016 ............ 30

TABLE 17: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN STANDARD FORMAT SCHOOL PROJECTS (KA201) COORD. BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2016 ... 31

TABLE 18: APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATES 2014-16, VET SECTOR ................................................................................ 35

TABLE 19: PARTNERSHIPS IN THE VET SECTOR SELECTED IN 2014 ....................................................................................... 35



TABLE 22: TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN VET PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ................................................................................... 37

TABLE 23: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS VET, ACTIVITIES 2014 .............................................................................................. 38

TABLE 24: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS VET, ACTIVITIES 2015 .............................................................................................. 38

TABLE 25: PRIORITIES IN THE VET PARTNERSHIP, 2014-16 ............................................................................................... 40

TABLE 26: TOPICS IN THE VET PARTNERSHIP, 2014-16 .................................................................................................... 40

TABLE 27: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN VET PROJECTS COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2014 ....................................... 41



TABLE 30: APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATES IN 2014-16, HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR ........................................................ 46

TABLE 31: PARTNERSHIPS IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR SELECTED IN 2014 ................................................................... 47



TABLE 34: TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 .............................................................. 49

TABLE 35: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS HIGHER EDUCATION, ACTIVITIES 2014 ......................................................................... 49

TABLE 36: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS HIGHER EDUCATION, ACTIVITIES 2015 ......................................................................... 50

TABLE 37: PRIORITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS 2014-16 ................................................................................ 52

TABLE 38: TOPICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS 2014-16 ..................................................................................... 52

TABLE 39: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN HE PROJECTS COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2014 ......................................... 53



TABLE 42: APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESS RATES IN 2014-16, ADULT EDUCATION ..................................................................... 58

TABLE 43: PARTNERSHIPS IN ADULT EDUCATION SELECTED IN 2014-16 ............................................................................... 59

TABLE 44: TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ................................................................ 59

TABLE 45: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ADULT EDUCATION, ACTIVITIES 2014 ........................................................................... 60

TABLE 46: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ADULT EDUCATION, ACTIVITIES 2015 ........................................................................... 60

TABLE 47: PRIORITIES IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16................................................................................. 61

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TABLE 48: TOPICS IN ADULT EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS, 2014-16 ..................................................................................... 62

TABLE 49: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN ADULT EDUCATION PROJECTS COORDINATED BY ANOTHER INSTITUTION, 2014 .................... 62



TABLE 52: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN PROJECTS ADDRESSING MORE THAN ONE SECTOR (KA200), 2014 .................................... 65

TABLE 53: SUCCESS RATE IN DIFFERENT SECTORS, 2014-16 ............................................................................................... 68

TABLE 54: THE PORTFOLIO OF NORWEGIAN COORDINATED PARTNERSHIPS: DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN SECTORS .............................. 69

TABLE 55: ACTIVITIES IN DIFFERENT SECTORS 2014 .......................................................................................................... 70

TABLE 56: ACTIVITIES IN DIFFERENT SECTORS 2015 .......................................................................................................... 70

TABLE 57: NORWEGIAN COORDINATORS AND PARTNERS, GRANTED SUMS ............................................................................. 73

TABLE 58: NORWEGIAN INSTITUTIONS ACTIVE IN MORE THAN ONE PARTNERSHIP, 2014-16 ..................................................... 74

FIGURE 1: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN THE SCHOOL SECTOR (KA200, KA201 AND KA219) PER COUNTRY, 2014-16 ................ 24

FIGURE 2: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS (KA201 AND KA219), BY COUNTRY OF COORDINATOR, 2014-16 .... 33

FIGURE 3: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN THE VET SECTOR (KA200 AND KA202) PER COUNTRY, 2014-16 ................................. 39

FIGURE 4: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN VET PROJECTS (KA202), BY COUNTRY OF COORDINATOR, 2014-16 ................................. 45

FIGURE 5: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR (KA200 AND KA203) PER COUNTRY, 2014-16 ............. 51

FIGURE 6: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN HE PROJECTS (KA203), BY COUNTRY OF COORDINATOR, 2014-16 ................................... 56

FIGURE 7: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN ADULT EDUCATION (KA204) PER COUNTRY, 2014-16 ................................................ 61

FIGURE 8: NORWEGIAN PARTNERS IN ADULT EDUCATION PROJECTS (KA204), BY COUNTRY OF COORDINATOR, 2014-16 .............. 64

FIGURE 9: PROJECTS IN MORE THAN ONE SECTOR (KA200) WITH NORWEGIAN PARTNERS, BY COORDINATING COUNTRY, 2014 ...... 67

FIGURE 10: STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN ALL SECTORS, NORWEGIAN COORDINATOR, PARTNERS PER COUNTRY, 2014-16 ............. 71

FIGURE 11: PROJECTS IN ALL SECTORS WITH NORWEGIAN PARTNERS, BY COORDINATING COUNTRY, 2014-16 ............................. 72

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Executive summary Strategic partnerships in the Erasmus+ programme are situated in a particular political context. Edu-

cation belongs to the jurisdiction of member states in the EU. Nonetheless, education has become a

topic of increasing interest at the EU level. It is regarded as an important means to solve key chal-

lenges in society, such as innovation, economic growth, poverty and unemployment. The Erasmus+

programme is one of the European Union’s chief instruments in the education field. It has explicit

political objectives, reflecting the broader education policy agenda in the EU. On an overall level the

Erasmus+ programme shall contribute to the achievement of the Europe 2020 Strategy, which tar-

gets a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Strategic partnerships, more specifically, aim to sup-

port peer learning, exchange of experience and the development and implementation of innovative

practices in education across Europe.

The report at hand maps all Norwegian-coordinated partnerships in the education sectors (the youth

sector, also covered by Erasmus+, is not included) selected in the calls of 2014-16. Some information

on Norwegian institutions participating as partners is also included, to show the scope of Norwegian

participation, but these data are less exact and comprehensive. They nevertheless show that Norwe-

gian partners receive less EU money through projects coordinated from other countries, than Nor-

wegian coordinators send to their partners abroad.

Looking at the total portfolio of Norwegian-coordinated strategic partnerships in the field of educa-

tion selected in 2014-16, the success rate has been between 27 and 57 per cent. There have been

significant differences between and within the sectors, in different calls, depending on the size of the

budget and the scope of the projects applied for. In the school education sector the success rate

went significantly up from 2014 to 2015, partly because many institutions applied for a smaller grant

in 2015. In the higher education sector the situation has been the converse the last year: the success

rate fell from 2015 to 2016, due to several high-quality large-scale projects and a smaller sector

budget. In the VET sector the success rate has been stable and close to 50 per cent all three years.

The highest success rate was achieved in the adult education sector in 2016, with 57 per cent.

The school sector has been granted the highest number of partnerships in all three calls. This sector

also received the largest share of the total grant amount awarded to strategic partnerships, except in

2014, when the higher education sector received the largest share.

The largest partnerships, in terms of number of partner institutions, are found in the VET sector. It is

important to note that the average number of partners in VET partnerships is impacted by the pres-

ence of a few partnerships including a high number of partners, the largest including 22 partners.

The largest partnerships in terms of budget are generally found in the VET sector and the higher edu-

cation sector.

In the application form applicants are asked to select up to three topics and three priorities from a

pre-defined list (reflecting the aims and priorities of the programme), which define their projects.

Early school leaving is the most frequently selected topic in the school education sector. 31 per cent

of the partnerships have selected this topic In the other sectors new innovative curricula/educational

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methods are on the top: 36 percent of VET partnerships, 71 per cent of the higher education partner-

ships and 75 per cent of the adult education partnerships have selected this topic. Regarding priori-

ties, tendencies are less clear. In the school sector early school leaving is again the most frequently

selected. In the VET sector and the adult education sector there is a large spread in priorities. In the

higher education sector there is also a spread of priorities, but improving the quality and relevance of

higher education is as a commonly selected priority.

A wide range of activities are supported in strategic partnerships. These may be grouped in some

main categories: project management (including administration, implementation and transnational

project meetings), project outputs (including intellectual outputs and multiplier/dissemination

events) and short-term learning, training and teaching activities (including events and exchange of

staff and students/pupils). Looking at the allocation of grants for the different categories of activities,

there are marked differences between the education sectors: all sectors, except partnerships includ-

ing schools only, spend more on project outputs than on short-term learning, training and teaching

activities. Partnerships in the adult education sector spend on average close to nothing on this type

of activities. In partnerships including schools only the picture is the inverse. The largest sum is allo-

cated for short-term learning, training and teaching activities and very little for project outputs. From

2016 on, partnerships including schools only may only apply for activities supporting the exchange of

good practices, which excludes so-called intellectual outputs.

Some countries are more represented than others in the Norwegian coordinated partnerships. Ger-

many, Italy and Spain are recurrent countries of cooperation, across education sectors. Germany is

an important country in all sectors, except in the VET sector. Italy and Spain are important countries

in all sectors, except in the higher education sector. Many partnerships include Norwegian partner

institutions. This is particularly common in the VET sector.

Some institutions are active in more than one partnership, as partner, coordinator or both. Among

higher education institutions, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is the

most active, and in the school sector Charlottenlund upper secondary school is particularly active.

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Introduction This report is part of a larger project initiated by SIU to map results and effects of Norwegian partici-

pation in strategic partnerships funded by the Erasmus+ programme. The purpose of this project is to

better advice users of the programme, to inform the wider public about Norwegian participation in

EU programmes, and to provide education authorities in Norway and the EU with information that

can be used in further development of policies and policy instruments. In-depth knowledge of Eras-

mus+ strategic partnership may also help us identify success factors and common challenges in in-

ternational cooperation in education more generally.

The report maps all partnerships coordinated by Norwegian institutions selected in 2014-16 (the first

three calls) by sector (school, VET, higher education and adult education). The report also provides

information about Norwegian participation in partnerships coordinated by another institution in

Norway or another country. The Erasmus+ action “Strategic partnerships” covers the youth field, in

addition to the education sectors. Partnerships in the youth sector are not covered by this report.

The mapping is based on data from the EplusLink database and data collected and distributed by the

European Commission.

The mappings in this report will be the basis for an in-depth, qualitative analysis of selected strategic

partnerships. This second part of the project will be completed in the fall 2017.

The first chapter outlines the political context and goals of the Erasmus+ programme. The second

chapter describes the particular action Strategic partnerships in Erasmus+, its aims and priorities, as

well as the basic rules concerning participants and activities. The following chapters present key find-

ings for each sector (school education, VET, higher education and adult education). In the last chap-

ter we compare some key findings across sectors.

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The political context and goals of Erasmus+ Compared to its predecessors, the Erasmus+ programme is more clearly tied to a political agenda,

that is, to support the European policy agenda for jobs, growth, equity and social inclusion.

Since the turn of the millennium, education and training have moved from the margins to the centre

of EU policies and strategies. In Europe 2020, the present EU strategy for growth and development,

research, education and training are described as keys to achieve the threefold goal of a smart, sus-

tainable and inclusive growth, providing employability, productivity and social cohesion. The strategy

defines a set of benchmarks, referred to as headline targets, as a means of measuring progress. The

following benchmarks affect education directly: By 2020, the share of early school leavers should be

below 10 per cent, and at least 40 per cent of the younger generation should have a degree from

tertiary education.

Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020) is the strategic framework of EU cooperation in the field of

education. The strategy points out four objectives: 1. Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality,

2. Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training, 3. Promoting equity, social cohesion

and active citizenship, and 4. Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all

levels of education and training. In addition to the benchmarks in the Europe 2020 strategy, regard-

ing early school leaving and tertiary education, the following benchmarks are linked to the ET 2020

objectives: By 2020, an average of at least 15 per cent of adults should participate in lifelong learn-

ing, the share of low-achieving 15-years olds in reading, mathematics and science should be less than

15 per cent, and at least 95 per cent of children between four years and the age for starting compul-

sory primary education should participate in early childhood education.

Another key strategy is Rethinking Education, launched in 2012 to combat youth unemployment. This

strategy stresses the need to focus on learning outcomes and skills needed by the labour market.

Member states are urged to put more emphasis on basic skills in mathematics, science and literacy

and transversal skills, in particular entrepreneurial and IT skills. Foreign language learning is given

particular attention, to boost mobility in the European labour market. The following benchmark is

introduced: By 2020, at least 50 per cent of 15 year olds should master a first foreign language and at

least 75 per cent should study a second foreign language. Further actions stressed in the strategy are

increasing the quality of vocational education and training, stimulating open and flexible learning

paths through modernized assessment methods and recognition of formal and informal qualifica-

tions, strengthening teachers’ qualifications, more use of ICT in teaching, increased work-based

learning and strengthened links between education and employers.

EU policy in the field of education is intended to support national action and address common chal-

lenges. Each country is responsible for its own education system and the means by which to achieve

the shared goals. The political instruments of the EU are funding schemes and the so-called Open

Method of Coordination (OMC). OMC implies joint identification of goals and objectives, joint meas-

uring instruments (statistics, benchmarks and indicators), comparison of performance and exchange

of best practices. The instrument differs from binding EU legislation and is applied in policy fields

falling within the competence of the individual member states. In addition to the OMC, the Erasmus+

programme is the EU’s main instrument in the field of education.

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The overall policy objective of Erasmus+, as specified in the 2016 programme guide, is to contribute

to the achievement of:

The objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, including the headline education target: to reduce

early school leaving to less than 10 per cent and increase attainment in tertiary education to at

least 40 per cent by 2020.

The objectives of the strategic framework of European cooperation in education and training (ET

2020), including the corresponding benchmarks.

The sustainable development of Partner Countries in the field of higher education.1

The overall objectives of the renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field

(2010-2018).

The objective of developing the European dimension in sport, in particular grassroots sport, in

line with the EU work plan for sport.

The promotion of European values in accordance with Article 2 of the Treaty of the European

Union: respect of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect of

human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

Policy objectives are also reflected in horizontal and field specific priorities that must be addressed in

strategic partnerships, in order for them to be funded. To be funded projects need to address at least

one horizontal and one sector specific priority. The “relevance” of the project counts for 30 per cent

of the points awarded in the evaluation.2 In the 2016 programme guide, there are six horizontal pri-

orities applying to all sectors:

Improve achievements in high-level basic and transversal competences, in a life-long learning

perspective, through formal or non-formal education and training.

Inclusiveness, regarding access, diversity and participation in education and training. Includes

combating discrimination and segregation.

Open and innovative education, embedded in the digital era. Importance of dissemination and

spreading of innovative learning and work methods.

Better educators. Strengthen the recruitment of good candidates for teaching, and support pro-

fessional development of those already teaching.

Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications, in order to facilitate employability and

labour mobility.

Investment and efficiency in education and training. Promote sustainable funding.

1 Partner countries are countries which do not take fully part the programme, but may take part in some ac-

tions. 2 Girotti, Francesco and Giovanni Fillipini: “Towards the creation of a new space for inter-institutional structural

cooperation: From Erasmus to Erasmus+”, in: Journal of European Higher Education Area, 2015/3: 67.

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The horizontal priorities were modified in the 2016 programme guide. Thematically they remain

largely the same, but they are described in a different wording. Concerning inclusive education, the

2016 programme guide gives particular attention to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as well

as activities developing social, civic and intercultural competences and activities combating discrimi-

nation and segregation.

In addition to the horizontal priorities, there are specific priorities for the school, VET, higher educa-

tion and adult education sectors. These will be presented in the chapters covering the four sectors.

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Erasmus+, Key Action 2 and Strategic Partnerships Erasmus+, running from 2014-2020, consists of five main types of actions. Key Action 1 covers mobili-

ty of individuals, including student mobility, placements and staff mobility, Erasmus Mundus Joint

Master Degrees, and Erasmus+ Master Loans. Key Action 2 covers organisational cooperation

through projects, including Strategic Partnerships, Knowledge Alliances, Sector Skills Alliances, Capac-

ity Building, and IT support platforms. Key Action 3 supports activities aimed at policy reform

(knowledge building, stakeholder dialogue, cooperation with international organisations etc.). Key

Action 4, Jean Monnet activities, is meant to promote knowledge on the EU and European integra-

tion, whereas Key Action 5 supports projects in the field of sport.

Dissemination of results is a general objective in the Erasmus+ programme, to create impact beyond

project activities, on individuals, institutions and systems. Organisations involved in Erasmus+ pro-

jects must describe their dissemination activities when designing and implementing their project,

and the description of dissemination and impacts are important criteria when projects are assessed

and selected.

Impact and outcomes Impact on individuals can, according to the programme guide 2016, be such as increased sense of

initiative and entrepreneurship, competence in foreign languages, digital competence, responsive-

ness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, and increased employability.3 At institutional

and systemic level, Key Action 2 activities are expected to foster modernisation and innovation in

education, and to make education systems capable of responding adequately to main challenges in

society, such as employment, economic stability and growth, democratisation and social inclusion.

At the level of participating institutions and organisations, the following outcomes are intended:

Innovative approaches for addressing their target groups (for example more attractive education

and training programmes, in line with individual needs, use of new technology etc.).

A more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment inside the organisation,

ready to integrate good practices and new methods.

Increased capacity and professionalism to work at EU/international level: improved management

competences and internationalisation strategies, reinforced cooperation with partners from oth-

er countries and other fields of education.

At system level (locally, regionally, nationally or at the European level), the following are listed in the

programme guide 2016 as intended impacts of Key Action 24:

Increased quality of education, training and youth work in Europe and beyond.

3 Erasmus+ programme guide 2016: 105.


15

Increased opportunities for all included those at disadvantage.

Systems that are better aligned to the needs of the labour marked.

Improved provision and assessment of basic and transversal skills, particularly entrepreneurship,

civic, social, intercultural and language competences, critical thinking, digital skills and media lit-

eracy.

Increased synergies, links and transitions between different education sectors, with improved

use of European tools for recognition, validation and transparency of competences and qualifica-

tions.

Increased use of learning outcomes when describing and defining qualifications.

New and increased inter-regional and transnational cooperation of public authorities in the fields

of education, training and youth.

More strategic and integrated use of ICT and open education resources (OER).

Increased motivation for language learning through innovative teaching methods or better links

to practical use and the needs of the labour market.

Reinforced interaction between practice, research and policy.

Types of partnership activities There are two main types of strategic partnerships: partnerships supporting innovation, and partner-

ships supporting exchange of good practices. Partnerships supporting innovation are expected to

develop innovative outputs as well as to actively disseminate and exploit the new products and ide-

as. It is possible to apply for a budget dedicated for the development of so-called intellectual out-

puts. Partnerships supporting exchange of good practices are aimed at building and reinforcing net-

works with the purpose of sharing ideas, practices and methods.

The meaning of the strategic aspect of the partnership is not defined in the programme guide or in

the legal regulation. The legal regulation of Erasmus+ simply defines partnership as the following:

‘Partnership’ means an agreement between a group of institutions and/or organisations in different

programme countries to carry out joint European activities in the fields of education, training, youth

and sport or establishing a formal or informal network in a relevant field such as joint learning pro-

jects for pupils and their teachers in the form of class exchanges and individual long-term mobility,

intensive programmes in higher education and cooperation between regional or local authorities to

foster inter-regional, including cross-border, cooperation; it may be extended to institutions and/or

organisations from partner countries with the view to strengthening the quality of the partnership.5

As a general rule a partnership consists of minimum three partner institutions, from three different

programme countries. Exceptions to this rule are two types of strategic partnerships in the field of

5 Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013, Estab-

lishing ‘Erasmus+’: the Union programme for education, training, youth and sport and repealing Decisions no 1719/2006/EC, No 1298/2008/EC, in: Official Journal of the European Union, 20.12.2013.

16

school education; partnerships for schools only and for regional cooperation between local authori-

ties in different countries. In these cases the minimum number of partners is two, from two different

programme countries.6 There is no maximum number of partners. Participation is open to a wide

range of institutions and organisations, not only schools and higher education institutions, but also

authorities, non-profit organisations, foundations, research institutes, enterprises etc. Partnerships

should involve the most relevant partners, but also the most diverse range of institutions and organi-

sations possible, in order to foster cross-sectorial learning. The applicant institution must be located

in one of the programme countries. However, institutions and organisations located in programme

partner countries (countries not participating in the programme) may participate if this adds value to

the partnership.7

A wide range of activities may be supported in strategic partnerships, for example development of

courses, joint study programmes, modules, teaching material, new methods, workshops, virtual col-

laboration spaces, networking activities, information work, guidance, counselling, surveys, teaching

and learning activities. Several types of mobility are supported: blended mobility of learners (combin-

ing physical and virtual mobility), short-term exchanges of groups of pupils (5 days to 2 months),

long-term study mobility of pupils (2 to 12 months), intensive study programmes for students (5 days

to 2 months), joint staff training events (5 days to 2 months) and teaching and training assignments

abroad for staff (2 to 12 months).8

6 Strategic partnerships in the youth sector may also have a minimum of two partners.

7 Programme guide 2016: 111-112.

8 Programme guide 2016: 280-283.

17

Partnerships in the school education sector In key EU policy papers covering all educational fields, the following priorities and benchmarks are

related to the school education sector (pre-primary, primary and secondary education):

Reducing early school leaving (Europe 2020 and Education and Training 2020).

The share of early school leavers should be under 10 per cent (Europe 2020).

At least 95 per cent of children from four to compulsory school should participate in early child-

hood education (Education and Training 2020).

Fewer than 15 per cent of 15-year-olds should be under-skilled in reading, mathematics and sci-

ence (Education and Training 2020).

Revising and strengthening the professional profile of all teaching professions (Rethinking Educa-

tion).

The same four priorities (reducing early school leaving; developing early childhood education; im-

proving basic skills development and strengthening/revising the teacher profession) are highlighted

in field specific policy papers and are also recurrent in the Erasmus+ programme.

In addition to the horizontal priorities in Erasmus+, addressing all educational sectors, the following

four are listed as field specific priorities in the programme guide 2016:

Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving (ESL) and disadvantage as well as to address all

students from the lowest to the highest end of the academic spectrum.

Enhancing the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in order to improve the quali-

ty of services for better learning outcomes and ensure a good start in education for all.

Addressing underachievement in the basic skills of maths, science and literacy through more

effective, innovative teaching methods.

Strengthening the profile of the teaching professions through attracting the best candidates to

the profession and by supporting teachers and leaders to deliver high quality teaching, deal with

complex classroom realities and adopt new methods and tools.

Types of strategic partnerships in the school sector The term school includes institutions at pre-primary (kindergarten), primary, lower secondary and

upper secondary level. In the following we will only refer to these as schools.

Erasmus+ has broadened the scope of possible activities for schools, compared to the Comenius pro-

gramme. Schools may now cooperate with other organisations active in all fields of education and

training and they may participate in larger-scale projects than before.

There are three types of strategic partnerships relevant for the school sector:

18

Partnerships working on school related topics. These partnerships may include other institutions

than schools or kindergartens. From 2015 on, this type of partnerships is coded as KA201 in pro-

gramme documents (in 2014 they were coded as KA200).

Partnerships including schools only. Whereas the general rule for strategic partnerships is a min-

imum of three partners, the minimum number of partners is two in the schools only partner-

ships. From 2015 on, this type of partnerships is coded as KA219 (in 2014 they were coded as

KA201). In the following this type will be referred to as schools only partnerships.

Regional partnerships: These partnerships consist of a minimum of two local or regional authori-

ties (school owners) (coded as KA201).

In 2014 and 2015 schools only partnerships could apply for projects aimed at developing innovative

outputs. From 2016, schools only partnerships are limited to the exchange of good practices be-

tween schools in different programme countries. In many cases this is combined with short and long-

term mobility or pupils from the participating schools. Long-term mobility is, however, rare.

In partnerships including schools only there is a contractual feature distinguishing it from other stra-

tegic partnerships. Although one of the schools has the role of coordinator and applies on behalf of

the group of institutions, all participating institutions have contracts with their respective national

agencies, receiving funding from and reporting to their national agencies.9

Applications and success rate, school sector Table 1 shows the number of applications and approved applications in 2014, 2015 and 2016. For all

three years, most applications were received and approved in the category “Schools only”. Put to-

gether, 9 partnerships in the school sector were approved in 2014, 16 in 2015 and 17 in 2016. The

success rate went significantly up from 2014 to 2015. One reason for this may be that many institu-

tions applied for a lower grant in 2015 and 2016, opening up for a selection of more partnerships.10

Table 1: Applications and success rates in 2014-16, school sector

Applications Approved Success rate

2014 Schools only (KA201) 29 6 21 % Standard format partnerships (KA200) 6 3 50 % School education total 2014 35 9 26 %



* Source: SIU


10 In 2016 a restriction was introduced on the number of mobilities in partnerships supporting exchange of

good practices. The maximum is now 100 mobilities.

19

Projects, coordinating organisations and grants awarded, school sector Table 2-Table 4 provide an overview of the partnerships in the school sector coordinated by Norwe-

gian organisations, selected in 2014-16. In total 42 partnerships were selected. Of these 26 per cent

have two partners, 38 per cent have between three and five partners and 36 per cent have between

six and eleven partners (all including the coordinating institution).

Table 2: Partnerships in the school sector selected in 2014

KA Coordinating organisation Project title Part-ners*

Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

201 Oppdal upper secondary school

In medio stat virtus: sharing good practices from north to south

2 69 38

201 Sistranda general secondary school

Share play 8 299 51

201 Sykkylven upper secondary school

From Sunnmøre to Catalunia through art nouveau

2 58 32

201 Hammerfest upper second-ary school

Young Europeans on the edge of Europe 5 201 44

201 Foss upper secondary school

Learning to do business in Europe through participating in Gründercamps for young entrepreneurs in Norway, Latvia and Swe-den

3 70 24

201 Malvik upper secondary school

Unsere Chancen in Europa – our chances in Europe

5 262 66

200 Statped Heimdal (public body)

Juvenil Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis and education

7 215 82

200 Charlottenlund upper sec-ondary school

Completing secondary education 6 229 48

200 Rogaland regional county Improving language learning 7 88 19

SUM GRANTS SCHOOL SECTOR 2014 1 491 404

NOTE: Partners: including the coordinator. Total grant: refers to the whole project. Coordinator grant: refers to the sum granted to the Norwegian coordinator. Source: SIU



Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

201 Fosen upper secondary school

Addiction Prevention in schools 7 153 41

201 Kidsa Øvsttun AS kindergar-ten

Developing teacher competences for the future

5 191 47

219 Varhaug lower secondary school

Vision of my “future me” 7 164 30

219 Hval gård og Vepsebolet kindergarten

Using nature as a forceful learning arena 4 84 26

219 Laksevåg upper secondary school

The city of rings 6 77 17

219 Hatteng primary school ICU – a toolbox for optimal learning 7 94 19

219 Fræna upper secondary school

ICT use in classroom 2 70 38

219 Sortland upper secondary school

Food for thought 4 96 30

20


Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

219 Otta lower secondary school Sustainable development in local communi-ties

5 77 21

219 Eikeli upper secondary school

European ideas and identities 4 99 32

219 Valdres upper secondary school

Entrepreneurship and economic growth on the basis of local natural and cultural re-sources

2 50 28

219 Engerdal primary and lower secondary school

Active in nature, enjoying the nature! 4 90 29

219 Gjerstad primary school Both listen to our souls and sharpen our minds!

7 252 37

219 Sandnes upper secondary school

Society and architecture 5 124 37

219 Trysil upper secondary school

Norwegian classic dishes meeting Italian cuisine

2 78 36

219 Re upper secondary school Keep cool – stay warm. We are building for the future

2 43 24




KA Coordinating organisation Project title Part-

ners*

Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

219 Hersleb upper secondary school

Georesources – sustainability of a future generation in a chaning environment

2 103 56

219 Årum primary school The ICT road to STEM through TCC 6 105 22

219 U. Pihl upper secondary school

Sustainable development - How is Europe dealing with that challenge within 2020?

4 63 20

219 Greveskogen upper second-ary

Changing roles : through Democracy to competent Schools

2 48 27

219 Kringsjå primary school Full STEAM ahead for better education 7 166 32

219 Sykkylven upper secondary school

Crossroads with the future: digital technol-ogy and education

5 104 30

219 Verket primary school With the future in your hands 7 116 22

219 Skeiene lower secondary school

TeachAIR/LearnAIR – Awareness – Integra-tion - Respect

5 124 30

219 Fræna upper secondary school

Refugee crises 2 56 31

219 Trysil upper secondary school

Job Shadowing into the European Future 5 127 30

219 Malakoff upper secondary school

United in immigration 3 79 28

219 Porsgrunn upper secondary school

Let's strengthen bonds through entrepre-neurship and tourism

2 70 38

219 Asker upper secondary school

The understanding of how physical and psycological health can contribute to a bet-ter society.

2 62 36

201 Hå municipality – section of education and culture

Critical Reading and Awareness in Education 11 141 23

21

KA Coordinating organisation Project title Part-

ners*

Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

201 Askøy upper secondary school

A pedagogical and cultural approach to inclusion of foreign cultures

6 185 56

201 Oslo og Akershus university college of applied sciences

Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Managing language and social diversity in classrooms

10 308 56

201 Teigar lower secondary school

Education meets magration 5 82 22



Types of institutions in school partnerships Table 5 and Table 6 provide an overview of the types of institutions participating in the Norwegian-

coordinated partnerships in the school education sector, according to the institutional categories

they have selected in the application form. The largest group of institutions taking part in the Norwe-

gian coordinated schools only partnerships are schools at the secondary level. In standard format

partnerships VET institutions are the most numerous category.11

Table 5: Types of institutions in schools only partnerships, 2014-16

Type No

School/institute/educational centre - general education - pre-primary level 3

School/institute/educational centre - general education - primary level 22

School/institute/educational centre - general education - secondary level 60

School/institute/educational centre - general education – VET 2

School/institute/educational centre - general education - adult education 2

School/institute/educational centre - general education – tertiary 1

Local public body 2

Other 17

Source: EPlusLink

Table 6: Types of institutions in standard format school partnerships, 2014-16

Type No

School/institute/educational centre - general education - secondary level 2

School/institute/educational centre - general education – VET 7

School/institute/educational centre - general education - adult education 2

Local public body 2

Regional public body 1

Foundation 1

Accreditation, certification or qualification body 1

Other 16

Source: EPlusLink

11

As seen in the tables, many institutions also tick off for “other”, even institutions we know are schools or kindergartens. We do not know why so many have selected “other”.

22

Activities in school partnerships When launched in 2014, the Erasmus+ programme opened up for more output-oriented school pro-

jects compared with the prior Comenius programme, with the possibility of obtaining support to

develop new curricula, handbooks and other pedagogical products. Support for the exchange of good

practices remained an option. From the year 2016, however, partnerships for schools only may only

apply for activities supporting the exchange of good practices. Schools wanting to form a partnership

aimed at innovation and the production of intellectual outputs must apply for standard format

school education partnerships.

Table 7-Table 10 show the grant amount awarded to different activities in 2014 and 2015 (2016 data

are not yet available). Project management represents the highest costs, except in the partnerships

including schools only in 2014. Project outputs (including intellectual outputs and different multiplier

events), make up a significantly larger part of the total costs in the partnerships for school education

compared to the partnerships for schools only. It is, however, important to note that smaller outputs,

such as web pages, brochures etc., which are common outputs in partnerships supporting the ex-

change of practices, are to be covered by the management costs. The amount spent on short term

learning, training and teaching activities (mobility of staff and pupils), is significantly higher in part-

nerships for schools only compared to partnerships for school education.

Table 7: Strategic partnerships for school education (excluding schools only partnerships), activities 2014

Awarded projects

Activity type Grant amount

awarded (€) Share of total

amount awarded

3 Total project management 250 385 47 %

Total project outputs 195 548 37 %

Total short-term learning, training and teaching 55 635 11 %

Total other costs 30 100 5 %

Total 531 668 100 %

Source: the European Commission

Table 8: Strategic partnerships for schools only, activities 2014

Awarded projects


Awarded (€) Share of total

amount awarded




Total other costs 4 470

Total 959 590 100 %


23

Table 9: Strategic partnerships for school education (excluding schools only partnerships), activities 2015

Awarded projects



amount awarded




Total 344 902 100 %


Table 10: Strategic partnerships for schools only, activities 2015

Awarded projects

Activity type Grant amount awarded (€)

Share of total amount awarded




Total other costs 4 500

Total 1 400 101 100 %


Countries of cooperation in school partnerships Figure 1 shows the national belonging of the institutions involved in school partnerships having a

Norwegian coordinator. Germany and Southern European countries are the top countries of cooper-

ation in school partnerships. Then follow the United Kingdom and Finland, on the top among the

Nordic countries. The high score of Finnish schools on international school rakings (Pisa) may perhaps

explain why Norwegian schools find Finnish schools to be attractive partners.

Cooperation with countries outside Europe is only possible in standard format school education

partnerships, and is quite rare. One school education partnership from 2016, coordinated by the Oslo

and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, includes two partner institutions from South

Africa.

24

Figure 1: Strategic partnerships in the school sector (KA200, KA201 and KA219) per country, 2014-16

Source: EPlusLink. In some projects, there are two or more partners from the same countries. This is the case for Italy, Belgium, Norway (coordinator not included), UK and France These are counted separately.

Priorities and topics in school partnerships In the application form applicants are asked to select from a pre-defined list what programme priori-

ties are most relevant to their project. The applicants have selected between one and three priori-

ties, most of them two or three. The priority “Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving” is the

most frequently selected priority, reflecting the emphasis on early school leaving in the programme.

29 per cent have selected this priority, followed by “Developing basic and transversal skills, selected

by 24 per cent.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Czech republic

Slovakia

Austria

South Africa

Croatia

Lithuania

Sweden

Iceland

Romania

Slovenia

Estonia

Netherlands

Portugal

Ireland

Turkey

Belgium

Greece

Latvia

Denmark

Poland

Finland

UK

Norway

France

Italy

Spain

Germany

25

Table 11: Priorities in the school partnerships, 2014-16

Priority (chosen from a pre-defined list of approx. 50 priorities) Chosen by, out of 42 projects:

Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving and disadvantage as well as to address all students from the lowest to the highest end of the academic spectrum

12

Developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods 10 Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the teaching professions 9 Inclusive education, training and youth 7 Improve achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences in a lifelong perspective

6

Open and innovative education, training, and youth work embedded in the digital era 6 Addressing underachievement in the basic skills of maths, science and literacy through more effective, innovative teaching methods

5

Contributing to the development of a European area of skills and qualifications 5 Strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation 4 Enhancing digital integration in learning, teaching, training and youth work at various levels 4 Promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people 3 Developing partnerships between education and employment 3 Promoting the take-up of practical entrepreneurial experiences in education, training and youth work

3

Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and labour mobility

3

Promoting empowerment, participation and the active citizenship of young people 3 Enhancing the quality of early childhood education and care 2 Addressing low achievement in basic skills through more effective teaching methods 2 Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and training 2 Promoting the professional development of staff and youth workers in ICT technologies 1 Stimulating active participation of young people in democratic life 1 Supporting the production and adoption of open educational resources in diverse European languages

1

Promoting young people's social inclusion and well-being 1 Aligning VET policies with national, regional or local economic development strategies 1 Developing high quality and accessible early childhood education and care services 1 Improving the attainment of young people, particularly those at risk of early school leaving 1 Contributing to a reduction in the number of low-skilled adults (re-skilling and up-skilling of adults)

1

Adult educators' competences 1 Reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners 1 Effective strategies for enhancing basic skills 1 High quality learning opportunities 1 Increasing labour market relevance of VET 1 Promoting empowerment, open to cross-sectorial cooperation, and active citizenship of young people

1

Source: EPlusLink

Applicants are also asked to select, from a pre-defined list, topics that are relevant to their project.

Whereas “priorities” refer to overall priorities in the programme, “topic” refer to the themes/topics

that the partnerships work with. As seen in Table 12, commonly chosen topics are early school leav-

ing (selected by 31 per cent), ICT/new technologies (selected by 26 per cent), innovative education-

al/curricula methods (selected by 21 per cent) and entrepreneurial learning/entrepreneurship educa-

tion (also selected by 21 per cent). It is worth noting that early school leaving, a top political priority

in the Europe 2020 strategy, is on the top of the list of topics as well as priorities in the school sector.

26

Responding to the international refugee crisis that erupted in 2015, refugee/migrants’ issues were

particularly emphasized in the programme guide 2016. This emphasis is reflected in the portfolio for

2016, with several projects focusing on refugees’ situation and social inclusion of migrants.

Table 12: Topics in the school partnerships, 2014-16

Topics (chosen from a pre-defined list of approx. 50 topics) Chosen by, out of 42 projects:

Early school leaving/combating failure in education 13 ICT, new technologies, digital competences 11 New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses 9 Entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education 9 EU citizenship, EU awareness and democracy 7 International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation 7 Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong) learning 7 Health and wellbeing 7 Integration of refugees 5 Teaching and learning foreign languages 4 Labour market issues incl. career guidance/youth unemployment 4 Key competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) - basic skills 4 Environment and climate change 3 Energy and resources 3 Migrants’ issues 3 Pedagogy, didactics 2 Disabilities - special needs 2 Gender equality/equal opportunities 2 Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers 2 Creativity and culture 2 Inclusion, equity 2 Natural sciences 2 Recognition, transparency, certification 1 Rural development and urbanisation 1 Youth (participation, youth work, youth policy) 1 Research and innovation 1 Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. interreligious dialogue) 1 Overcoming skills mismatches 1 Social dialogue 1 Quality and relevance of higher education in partner countries 1

Source: EPlusLink

Norwegian partners in school projects Table 13-Table 17 provide an overview of Norwegian institutions participating in partnerships coor-

dinated by another institution, in Norway or abroad, selected in 2014-16. Unlike what is the case for

Norwegian-coordinated partnerships, SIU has no direct access to data on partnerships in which Nor-

wegian institutions are involved as partners. An exception is schools only partnerships, where part-

ner institutions have signed contracts with their respective national agencies and SIU therefore has a

complete overview of Norwegian partners. Concerning other partnerships in the school sector we

rely on data collected from all the national agencies by the European Commission. The lists should be

quite comprehensive, but there might be partnerships that are selected but still have not started up.

These will not be included in the tables.

27

Table 13: Norwegian partners in school projects (KA201) coordinated by another institution, 2014

KA Agency Project title Name of institution Total € budget

Granted to org.

201 SI01 Young Entrepreneurs in Action Kongshavn upper sec-ondary school

85 066 34 572

201 CZ01 Creating Peace Tøndergård school and resource center

162 750 26 380

201 FR01 Entrepreneurship for the responsible European citizen

Alta upper secondary school

159 060 33 150

201 UK01 Successful Scientists Madsebakken primary school

150 055 19 015

201 ES01 The economic crisis in Europe: global and local consequences, future perspectives and self-employment

Fyllingsdalen upper secondary school

92 940 16 455

201 CZ01 Europe For You Lena upper secondary school

217 590 29 310

201 DE03 Think Globally: European regions creative-ly meeting the challenges of our time

Vollen lower secondary school

242 810 36 770

201 PL01 Zintergrowane nauczanie przedmiotów ścisłych z perspektywą obliczeniową

Simula School of Re-search and Innovation AS

263 320 52 380

201 UK01 Be Enterprising, Succeed Together Lunde primary and lower secondary school

191 297 23 590

201 DE03 Getting in touch with food again - Making Europeans responsible consumers

Stryn lower secondary school

119 670 38 840

201 ES01 Master model to gain time in your class-room

Gausdal upper second-ary school

242 209 36 552

201 TR01 EUapps4us Gausdal upper second-ary school

121 930 37 770

201 ES01 Values in Education: Teenagers in Action! Bryne upper secondary school

175 815 17 520

201 ES01 CONSTRUYENDO CIUDADANÍA EUROPEA A TRAVÉS DE LA EDUCACIÓN MEDIÁTICA

Lillesand municipality 138 330 22 390

201 DE03 Into the Wild Bore lower secondary school

113 965 25 970

201 NL01 Building Europe through Entrepreneurship and Employment

Spjelkavik upper sec-ondary school

449 275 44 075

201 NL01 21st Century Europeans, power to the pupils

Horten upper second-ary school

384 875 31 870

201 PL01 We are equal, we have the same rights! Åmot lower secondary school

185 785 20 115

201 BG01 Life is a project, be an entrepreneur, make it successful.

Fitjar upper secondary school

223 635 30 985

201 UK01 R€************ Hadsel upper second-ary school

223 390 34 350

201 TR01 High School Drop Outs: 'One is Too Many' Kuben upper second-ary school

238 595 24 155

201 LT01 Sustainable development- our way of life Fusa upper secondary school

60 560 13 640

201 EL01 Safe Internet For All Os upper secondary school

135 980 27 010

201 DE03 Employment Opportunities and Enterprise in Europe

Leikanger lower sec-ondary school

187 820 30 590

201 TR01 RISE and SHINE Mosjøen upper sec-ondary school

230 435 33 205

28


Granted to org.

201 UK01 How Children Learn Manstad Primary School

146 220 28 645

201 ES01 Un teorema en la Biblioteca Byåsen upper second-ary school

239 140 35 810

201 BE02 Strip to Identity Sandnessjøen upper secondary school

290 983 35 245

201 ES01 STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender balance

Norwegian University of Science and Tech-nology (NTNU)

351 885 50 455

SUM PARTNER GRANTS SCHOOLS PROJECTS 2014 890 814

NOTE: Granted to org: The sum received by the Norwegian partner. Source: SIU, the European Commission

Table 14: Norwegian partners in schools only projects (KA219) coordinated by another institution, 2015


Granted to org.

219 TR01 Bridging three generations: timeless games and toys

International School of Bergen

198 205 22 829

219 DE03 Creating a Sustainable Tomorrow Rosenborg lower sec-ondary school

88 260 20 735

219 UK01 Problem Solving for Tomorrow Sem primary and lower secondary school

65 910 28 867

219 DE03 Get infected to be protected. Os upper secondary school

132 010 21 115

219 DE03 Youth employment – Europe, get ready for new challenges! Exploring educational and vocational training systems across Europe.

Olsvikåsen upper sec-ondary school

153 900 20 810

219 IS01 This is me; under construction Marihøna kindergarten 106 430 19 475

219 DE03 EUvelopment - modern media crossing borders.

Ulstein upper second-ary school

165 495 23 590

219 EE01 Values - the Essence of an Active Citizen Kvåle school 199 975 25 800

219 UK01 My Future - a closed door or an open win-dow?

Skarnes upper second-ary school

290 465 45 435

219 SE01 Let the children change the world - teach-ing and learning tolerance and values from preschool on

Gråtass kindergarten 160 092 31 690

219 BE02 English through entrepreneurship Tiller upper secondary school

195 410 43 220

219 DE03 Teachers as learners, learners as teachers Spjelkavik lower sec-ondary school

109 640 20 685

219 UK01 Respect4 - Education Without Barriers Lambertseter upper secondary school

325 921 44 405

219 DE03 Cities in Transition Investigated by Europe-an Students

Nesodden upper sec-ondary school

145 510 30 660

219 PT01 Human Rights "R" us Ås lower secondary school

120 765 23 895

219 LV01

Once upon a time 4 travellers were chat-ting on their way. Facilitating children of ethnic minorities’ state language acquisi-tion

Sløyden kindergarten 84 275 19 425

219 DE03 Working Europe Mailand upper sec-ondary school

91 820 21 800

29


Granted to org.

219 CZ01 Traditions and Education as A Sharing of cultures around water

Nord-Troms upper secondary school

52 280 16 240

219 ES01 Culture and identity of European teenag-ers (express yourself)

Bryne upper secondary school

135 915 27 045

219 ES01 EUROPA EN GUERRA Kongsberg upper sec-ondary school

164 375 26 625

219 PL01 Healthy? Wealthy. Top tips. Lørenskog upper sec-ondary school

228 080 30 730

219 UK01 Building Resources and Innovation to De-velop Global Education

Tranevågen lower secondary school

397 564 38 171

219 RO01 No frontiers in education! Narvik upper second-ary school

132 549 36 707

219 FR01 Future, Ambitions and Challenges for Eu-rope

Hillestveit primary and lower secondary school

256 290 39 890

219 DE03 Young people in Education and Studies working in Europe

Lister upper secondary school

177 165 29 510

219 DE03 Heimat Europa - Was uns verbindet, was uns trennt


93 920 12 325

219 PL01 Let`s Meet Together Amalie Skram upper secondary school

239 040 38 720

219 FR01 The Faces of Europe Hemne upper second-ary school

319 060 92 345

219 TR01 Enhancing Cultural Literacy Through Inno-vative Practice and Skills in Europe

Vikeså primary and lower secondary school

99 251 14 197

219 AT01 Small Towns In Europe: Sharing Innovative Practices

Høyanger upper sec-ondary school

270 930 29 500

SUM PARTNER GRANTS SCHOOLS ONLY PROJECTS 2015 896 441


Table 15: Norwegian partners in standard format school projects (KA201) coord. by another institution, 2015


Granted to org.

201 BG01

Blended Learning Design Method-ology for Education in Green En-trepreneurship at Secondary Schools

Young Entrepreneurship Sogn og Fjordane (organisation)

191 315 40 674

201 UK01 International Skills Inventory and Training Programme for Global Citizens

Ås upper secondary school 348 320 22 035

201 UK01 Acknowledging Creative Thinking Skills

Rudolf Steiner schools (associ-ation)

423 351 76 125

201 NO01 Addiction Prevention in Schools Ørland municipality 153 490 17 198

201 IT02 Coaching schools to face Change ahead

Charlottenlund upper second-ary School

286 330 40 035

201 PT01

Interactive Mathematics by imple-menting a Blended-Learning model with Augmented Reality and Game books

Verdal upper secondary school 438 290 51 785

201 LT01 Pilietinės lyderystės ugdymas mokykloje

NITIN – Nordic Institute for Training and International Networking

118 766 15 325

30


Granted to org.

201 DE03 Vidumath - creative video for mathematics

Queen Maud University Col-lege for early childhood educa-tion

174 804 32 271

201 PT01

Interactive Mathematics by imple-menting a Blended-Learning model with Augmented Reality and Game books

Nesna University College 438 290 76 215

201 UK01

Enhancing the Education and Well-being of Disadvantaged Toddlers through the development of train-ing and materials to support Early Years Practitioners

Sandne municipality 343 960 37 160

201 UK01

Enhancing the Education and Well-being of Disadvantaged Toddlers through the development of train-ing and materials to support Early Years Practitioners

University of Stavanger 343 960 78 128

201 NL01

Strategies for Inclusion – Making high quality history and citizenship education more inclusive and ac-cessible

Norwegian University of Sci-ence and Technology (NTNU)

357 330 36 370

SUM PARTNER GRANTS STANDARD SCHOOL PROJECTS 2015 523 321


Table 16: Norwegian partners in schools only projects (KA219) coordinated by another institution, 2016


Granted to org.

219 IE01 Past Generations, New Innovations Ramberg primary school

129 820 20 850

219 ES01 Deconstructing education: creative and inclusive school in gastronomic cities

Kaland primary school

99 630 23 315

219 NL01 Social Integration of Refugees through Sports

Elvebakken upper secondary school

144 405 28 810

219 FR01 "Green Jobs for our Planet Earth" Bremnes lower sec-ondary school

174 270 15 840

219 PL01 With mathematics through life Midsund school 104 440 24 065

219 RO01 TEaCHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION Møglestu upper secondary school

122 600 19 390

219 BE01 Les salons des transitions Heggen upper sec-ondary school

98 840 24 920

219 UK01 Activating Innovative Learners Tysværvåg primary and lower secondary school

88 000 11 750

219 ES01 International Entrepreneurship with new methodologies

Hafstad upper sec-ondary school

99 555 24 155

219 IS01 What´s your moove? -early intervention through physical activity and the YAP model

Læringsverkstedet AS kindergarten

46 920 12 900

219 DE03 Apply and employ. Ways to enter the Eu-ropean job market.

Levanger upper sec-ondary school

76 000 15 300

219 DE03 Literary Heroes Otta lower secondary school

110 400 21 755

31


Granted to org.

219 IS01 Traces of Europe! Sviland primary school

184 805 28 595

219 FR01 Many Immigrants Go and/or Return to/from Another National Territory

Tertnes upper sec-ondary school

154 590 25 980

219 BE02 Move Your School Rå upper secondary school

96 960 25 965

219 DE03 Load easy - drive clean Stord upper second-ary school

92 240 17 650

219 CZ01 Consumption and Energy Sources in Mod-ern Education

Numedal upper sec-ondary school

106 500 25 540

219 UK01 Future Inventors, New Discoveries Lunde primary and lower secondary school

268 795 42 640

219 UK01 Sport, Health, Addiction and Relaxation in Education

Gausdal upper sec-ondary school

126 116 19 425

219 EE01 Accompany me! Lillesand lower sec-ondary school

74 360 17 280

219 NL01 Highlight Your Surroundings Askim upper second-ary school

219 920 25 795

219 NL01 3D in Education Vågen upper sec-ondary school

143 690 15 811

219 NL01 Food and Health; it’s better to prevent than to cure

Hof primary and lower secondary school

106 085 19 625

219 UK01 Eating for life: healthy eating education at school

Strinda upper sec-ondary School

138 175 18 850

219 ES01 Building a better Europe through sports values

Bergmo lower sec-ondary school

116 200 23 095

219 DE03 Labour Integration in Europe Sogndal upper sec-ondary school

86 470 20 250

219 TR01 Bullying free minds Vikeså primary and lower secondary school

175 890 25 760

219 CZ01 The One Who Reads A Lot and Travels A Lot, Sees A Lot and Knows A Lot

Polarsirkelen upper secondary school

113 345 27 010

219 ES01 The Sunny Side Up Omvikdalen primary school

138 250 26 450

SUM PARTNER GRANTS SCHOOLS ONLY PROJECTS 2016 648 771


Table 17: Norwegian partners in standard format school projects (KA201) coord. by another institution, 2016

KA Agency Title Name Total € budget

Granted to org.

201 DK01 Development of innovative digital learning solutions for transnational language and cultural education

Rothaugen lower sec-ondary school

135 825 8 800

201 NO01 Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Managing language and social diversity in classrooms

Kampen primary school

307 554 22 955

201 DK01 Digital Learning Across Boundaries Råde municipality 287 331 30 893

201 IE01 Role of Early Childhood Education in Positive Transition/Induction Outcomes for New pupils

Luster municipality 337 085 51 340

32

KA Agency Title Name Total € budget

Granted to org.

201 NO01 Critical Reading and Awareness in Education Frøyland lower sec-ondary school

141 200 9 650

201 NO01 Critical Reading and Awareness in Education Solås primary school 141 200 9 650

201 NO01 Critical Reading and Awareness in Education Varhaug primary school

141 200 9 650

201 RO01 Nonformal activities for inclusive groups of students

Førde lower secondary school

155 370 27 207

201 NO01 A pedagogical and cultural approach to inclusion of foreign cultures

Kleppestø kindergarten 184 660 12 675

201 NO01 Critical Reading and Awareness in Education Orre primary and lower secondary school

141 200 9 650

201 ES01 ChangeMakers | Nurturing the design think-ing mindset of children through gaming

NewSchool 145 353 27 395

201 BE01 School & Home Involvement Participation Multicultural initiative and resource network (MIR)

78 790 11 670

201 IS01 Meet up with the future Kristianslyst lower secondary school

110 500 18 080

201 ES01 Together we overcome barriers: Strategy for the equity inclusion of young people with albinism at the center and in the classroom

Norwegian organisa-tion for albinisme (NFFA)

94 065 19 460

201 SI01

Enhancement of School Teaching Methods by linking between schools, experts and geoparks in the combination with outdoor activities and ICT technologies

Samfundets primary and lower secondary school

380 371 48 930

201 FI01

“ALL ABOARD” - Innovative actions and products to strengthen the competence of national expertise centers supporting inclu-sive education for pupils and students with special educational needs

Statped Heimdal, re-gion midt (public body)

133 863 30 479

201 SE01 Early warning - early reaction - increase performance in school quality

Vågen upper second-ary school

89 247 17 550

201 SI01

Enhancement of School Teaching Methods by linking between schools, experts and geoparks in the combination with outdoor activities and ICT technologies

Magma UNESCO Geopark

380 371 65 682

201 NL01 Multilingual early childhood education and care for young refugee children

Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

165 197 30 565

201 DK01 Digital Learning Across Boundaries Østfold University College

287 331 40 978

201 FR01 Cross-curricular teaching Center for ICT in edu-cation (public body)

398 272 49 191

201 DK01 Development of innovative digital learning solutions for transnational language and cultural education

Bergen University Col-lege

135 825 56 590

201 NO01 Critical Reading and Awareness in Education University of Stavanger 141 200 24 725

201 IE01 Aiding Culturally Responsive Assessment in Schools

University of Oslo 294 422 81 117

201 DE03 Heads Using Professional Learning Commu-nities


238 587 42 142

SUM PARTNER GRANTS STANDARD SCHOOL PROJECTS 2016 757 024


33

Figure 2 shows Norwegian partner institutions according to the country of the coordinating institu-

tion. German coordinated partnerships are on the top, followed by the United Kingdom and Spain. It

is interesting to note that Germany and Spain are also on the top when looking at the nationality of

partners in Norwegian coordinated partnerships in the school education sector (see Figure 1).

Figure 2: Norwegian partners in school partnerships (KA201 and KA219), by country of coordinator, 2014-16

Source: EPlusLink. In some projects, there are two or more partners from the same countries. These are counted separately.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Austria

Finland

Italy

Latvia

Sweden

Bulgaria

Lithuania

Estonia

Ireland

Portugal

Romania

Slovenia

Denmark

Iceland

Poland

Belgium

Turkey

France

Netherlands

Norway

Spain

UK

Germany

34

Strategic partnerships in vocational education and training (VET) In addition to overall priorities for all sectors, there are three more VET-specific European policy doc-

uments particularly relevant as background for Erasmus+ strategic partnerships in the VET area. The

Bruges Communiqué from 2010 defines common objectives and priorities. Strategic objectives for

the period 2011-2020 include:

Making initial VET an attractive learning option.

Fostering the excellence, quality and relevance of both initial VET and continuing VET (quality

assurance, quality of teachers and labour market relevance, the latter to be achieved by more

partnerships with social partners, enterprises and education, more work-based learning and

more outcome-oriented learning).

Enabling flexible access to training and qualifications.

Developing a strategic approach to internationalisation and promoting international mobility.

Fostering innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as the use of ICT.

The 2012 Commission Staff Working Document VET for Better Skills, Growth and Jobs presents best

policy practice, comparative data and research results. The 2013 Policy handbook Work-Based Learn-

ing in Europe: Practice and Policy Pointers focuses on work-based learning and brings together policy

guidance with concrete practices.

In addition to the horizontal priorities in the Erasmus+ programme, the following four priorities are

listed in the programme guide as specific for the VET sector. These four represent the core priorities

in the VET policy basis of the programme. “I-VET” refers to initial vocational education and training,

whereas “C-VET” refers to continued VET after I-VET and/or after entry into working life.

Promoting work-based learning in all its forms, with special attention to apprenticeship-type

training, by involving social partners, companies and VET providers, as well as stimulating innova-

tion and entrepreneurship.

Further developing quality assurance mechanisms in VET, in line with EQAVET recommendation,

and establishing continuous information and feedback loops to I-VET and C-VET systems, based

on learning outcomes as part of quality assurance systems.

Further strengthening key competences in VET curricula and providing more effective opportu-

nities to acquire or develop those skills through I-VET and C-VET.

Enhancing access to training and qualifications for all through C-VET, in a life-long learning per-

spective, notably by increasing the quality, supply and accessibility of C-VET, validation of non-

formal and informal learning, promoting work-place learning in companies for the working popu-

lation, providing for efficient and integrated guidance services and flexible and permeable learn-

ing pathways.

35

Applications and success rate, VET sector Table 18 shows the numbers of submitted and approved applications in the VET sector in the first

three Norwegian calls. There were fewer applications in the two latter than in the first year, but the

success rate remained the same, just below 50 per cent. This is quite high compared to the success

rates in the other three sectors (except for schools in 2015 and adult education in 2016), but also

compared to other programmes administered by SIU. In other words, there is less competition for

funding of VET strategic partnerships than for funding of school, higher and adult education strategic

partnerships. The assessment sum of the funded VET projects 2014-16 ranged from 70 to 91 points.

Table 18: Applications and success rates 2014-16, VET sector


2014 13 6 46 %

2015 9 *4 45 %

2016 9 4 45 %

* One of the approved applications in 2015 withdrew, so that the number of actually funded projects in 2015 was 3. Source: EPlusLink.

Projects, coordinating organisations and grants awarded, VET Table 19-Table 21 provide an overview of the thirteen Norwegian-coordinated VET partnerships

funded in the 2014-16 application rounds. The consortium size, including coordinator, varied from

three to 22 organisations, with an average of nine. The grants varied between 75 and 376 thousand

euros, and altogether these partnerships received 3.1 million euros in these three calls. Thus the VET

projects are substantially different in size, both regarding the budget and the number of organisa-

tions involved.

Table 19: Partnerships in the VET sector selected in 2014


Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

200 Val AS upper secondary school

Increased Knowledge About European Aq-uaculture

3 90 35

200 NTI-MMM Multilateral Monitoring and Manage-ment

Skillstube: Video recordings of skills per-formance linked to ECVET descriptions

10 300 52

202 Arna upper secondary school

Building with Massive Wood 4 75 22

202 Mosjøen upper secondary school

Methods Adapted to the Computerised Learning Environment

7 164 35

202 Nord-Trøndelag regional county

International Nordic Entrepreneurship 8 141 17

202 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Viability Innovation Scientific Creativity oriented network for training and instruc-tion

17 289 69

SUM GRANTS VET SECTOR 2014 1 059 230


36



Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

202 Haugaland upper secondary school

Logged-on 5 318 83

202 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Leadership for Transition 7 360 73


Process VET from Chemi to Pharma 9 238 45

SUM GRANTS VET SECTOR 2015 916 201




Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

202 Val AS upper secondary school

Sustainable use of water based resources 4 116 36

202 Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Using Profiling and Publishing for the up-ping of Scientific Approaches

22 333 45


Qualification assessments for refugee train-ing and employment: Fast track with ECVET and Skills bank

14 321 53

202 Blått center of competences Optimized Training - Innovative Methods and tools for Acceptance of prior Learning in qualifications and workplace training

7 376 103

SUM GRANTS VET SECTOR 2016 1 146 237


Among the thirteen projects selected in 2014-16 there were four upper secondary VET schools, a

university, a county council and two private organisations. A majority of the projects had partners

from other areas of working life than education: SMEs, public bodies or foundations. There is quite

strong concentration when it comes to participant organisations; the Norwegian University of Sci-

ence and Technology (NTNU) as well as the private organisation NTI-MMM coordinates three pro-

jects each, and Val upper secondary school coordinates two projects. As we will see in the next chap-

ter, NTNU also coordinates five projects within higher education. The strong concentration of partici-

pants could mean that the wider institutional and social impact will be modest. On the other hand,

given the limited funds in the strategic partnership action, it is not necessarily a drawback to see

some concentration at some organisations.

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, 3 projects)

NTI-MMM Multilateral Monitoring and Management (3 projects)

37

Val upper secondary school (2 projects)

Arna, Mosjøen and Haugaland upper secondary schools (1 project each)

Nord-Trøndelag county council (1 project)

Blått kompetansesenter (Marine knowledge cluster, 1 project)

Types of institutions in VET partnerships Table 22 provides an overview of types of institutions participating in the Norwegian coordinated

VET partnerships, according to the institutional categories the participants have chosen in the appli-

cation form. The majority has ticked off for “other”. The second largest group is VET institutions at

secondary level, followed by VET institutions at tertiary level.

Table 22: Types of institutions in VET partnerships, 2014-16

Type No

School/institute/educational centre – Vocational training (secondary level) 24

School/institute/educational centre – Vocational training (tertiary level) 10

Small/medium sized enterprise 8

Higher education institution (tertiary level) 7

School/institute/educational centre - general education (secondary level) 6

Research institute 4

Non-governmental organisation/association/social enterprise 4

Local public body 3

Civil society organisation 3

Regional public authority 2

Social partner or other representative of working life (chambers of commerce, trade union, trade asso-ciation)

2

School/institute/educational centre - adult education 2

European NGO 1

International agencies and organisations 1

Other 39

Source: EPlusLink

Activities in VET partnerships Table 23 and Table 24 show activities in Norwegian coordinated VET partnerships in 2014-15 (2016

data are not yet available), as observable in grants allocated for different purposes. In 2014 the larg-

est sum was allocated for project management activities, and in 2015 for project outputs. In both

years, project outputs make up a significantly larger share of the total amount awarded than short-

term learning, training and teaching activities.

38

Table 23: Strategic partnerships VET, activities 2014

Awarded projects



amount awarded


Total project outputs (incl. intellectual outputs and multiplier events)

327 827 31 %

Total short-term learning, training, teaching 175 695 17 %


Total 1 059 192 100 %


Table 24: Strategic partnerships VET, activities 2015

Awarded projects



amount awarded



480 074 46 %



Total 1 041 009 100 %


Countries of cooperation in VET partnerships Figure 3 shows the number of partners from different countries. Norwegian coordinators are not

included. The high score for Norway thus means that in the VET projects, it is quite common to have

Norwegian partners. There are also many Turkish partners in the VET strategic partnerships, although

it should be noted that as many as eight of these ten take part in two projects lead by the NTNU.

Next on the list are Austria and Italy, before Spain and Romania. The Austrian and Spanish partners

are spread across four and three projects respectively, whereas all the Italian and Romanian partners

are part of the same two NTNU projects as the eight Turkish. As we saw for school projects earlier,

VET cooperation with “partner countries” in the world outside the EU/EEC is also very limited, with

only Palestine on the list.

39

Figure 3: Strategic partnerships in the VET sector (KA200 and KA202) per country, 2014-16

Source: EPlusLink. In some projects, there are two or more partners from the same countries. These are counted separately.

Priorities and topics in VET partnerships Applicants are asked to select relevant priorities according to the objectives of their project.12 In the

thirteen projects between one and three priorities were chosen. As is shown in Table 25, there is

considerable variation, and no priority stands out as particularly common. In total, the projects se-

lected 25 priorities, spread over 23 options. This is different from the school sector, where there is

much more concentration around some priorities. One reason for this dispersion might be that very

diverse organisations participate in the VET partnerships.

12

In 2014, applicants could select one or more priorities from a pre-defined list, whereas in 2015 and 2016 they were first asked to select one «most relevant» priority and then any number of «other relevant» priorities.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Norway

Turkey

Austria

Italy

Spain

Romania

Germany

Portugal

Ireland

Sweden

France

UK

Slovakia

Greece

Finland

Iceland

Slovenia

Switzerland

Belgium

Malta

Palestine

Poland

Denmark

Luxembourg

Netherlands

40

Table 25: Priorities in the VET partnership, 2014-16

Priority (chosen from a pre-defined list of approx. 50 priorities) Chosen by, out of 13 projects

Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the teaching professions 2

Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and learning mobility

2

Contributing to the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems as outlined in the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda

1

Developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods 1

Enhancing digital integration in learning, teaching, training and youth work at various levels 1

Promoting the professional development of staff and youth workers in ICT methodology 1

Promoting the take-up of practical entrepreneurial experience in education, training and youth work

1

Developing partnerships between education and employment 1

Fostering access to continuing VET, including groups at risk 1

Professional development of VET teachers and trainers 1

Supporting schools to tackle early school leaving (ESL) and disadvantage as well as to ad-dress all students from the lowest to the highest end of academic spectrum

1

Addressing low achievement in basic skills through more effective teaching methods 1

Development of high quality work-based VET 1

Implementation of EU VET tools 1

Contributing to the development of a European area of skills and qualifications 1

Improve achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences in a lifelong learning perspective

1

Improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities 1

Promoting work-based learning in all its forms, with special attentions to apprenticeship-like training

1

Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and training 1

Further developing quality assurance mechanisms in VET 1

Designing and implementing effective provision for enhancing the basic skills and key com-petences

1

Inclusive education, training and youth 1

Enhancing access to training and qualifications for all through C-VET 1

Source: EPlusLink

The applicants were also asked to select the «most relevant topics addressed by your project», from

a pre-defined list in the application form. There is more concentration on certain topics, than is the

case for priorities. The most frequently selected topic, chosen by 5 of 13 projects (36 per cent), is

new innovative curricula/education methods/development of training courses.

Table 26: Topics in the VET partnership, 2014-16

Topic (chosen from a pre-defined list of approx. 50 topics) Chosen by, out of 13 projects

New innovative curricula/education methods/development of training courses 5

ICT - new technologies - digital competences 3

Early school leaving/combating failure in education 2

Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship) 2

Entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education 2

41


International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation 2

Labour market issues incl. career guidance/youth unemployment 2

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries 1

Creativity and culture 1

Gender equality/equal opportunities 1

Integration of refugees 1

Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal) 1

Pedagogy and didactics 1

Quality assurance 1

Quality improvement institutions and/or methods (incl. school development) 1

Recognition, transparency, certification 1

Research and innovation 1

Rural development and urbanisation 1

Social dialogue 1

Source: EPlusLink

Norwegian partners in VET projects Table 27-Table 29 give an overview of Norwegian institutions participating in VET partnerships coor-

dinated by another institution, in Norway or abroad. The available data are less detailed and reliable

than the data on projects with Norwegian coordinators. There might be active partnerships in addi-

tion to those listed below, that still have not been registered.

Table 27: Norwegian partners in VET projects coordinated by another institution, 2014


Granted to org.

202 NO01 Methods Adapted to the Computerised Learning Environment

Norwegian Digital Learning Arena

164 415 12 940

202 PL01 Therapy dog training - European standards Antrozoologi Senteret AS (association)

247 186 51 671

202 FR01 Strategy To Raise Awareness and Improve, Generalize and Help Tackling European Needs for BASIC SKILLS

Folkeuniversitetet Sør-Øst (foundation)

291 844 50 826

202 BE02 Additive manufacturing, adding hightech in education

Stord upper secondary school

81 880 14 625

202 CZ01 Production Technology of Regional Food Focused on Animal Breeding and Welfare

Skjetlein upper sec-ondary school

177 000 43 260

202 CZ01 IT-solutions in Production and Business – Partnership for Stronger Europe

Askim upper second-ary school

198 140 45 858

202 FR01 The Creative Museum Museums in Sør-Trøndelag AS

402 255 31 320

202 LT01 ECVET in HoReCa sector Sandefjord upper secondary school

77 100 18 350

202 NO01 International Nordic Entrepreneurship Leksvik upper second-ary school

141 105 24 845

42


Granted to org.

202 MK01 Marketing Initiative of Students for Profes-sional Orientation and Progress

Kristiansand Cathedral School

95 133 19 061

202 IS01

Work mentoring within a quality manage-ment system. Structure for cooperation between school and small and medium-sized Enterprices (SMEs).

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School

187 235 31 572

202 UK01

Face Value: Optimising the psychosocial care for individuals with birth defects in Europe by implementing an innovative training method for staff in health care and NGO settings.

Rogaland school and business development association

163 374 28 498

202 NO01 International Nordic Entrepreneurship Leksvik industriell vekst AS (company)

141 105 7 150

202 DE02 OLD BUILDINGS, NEW TECHNOLOGY Mosjøen upper sec-ondary school

150 000 17 625

202 LT01 Using ECVET for Agricultural Program Mo og Jølster upper secondary school

93 120 22 540

202 NL01 YEBISU empowers employees EUROMASC - Europe-an Masters of Skilled Crafts

337 096 13 946

202 SE01 Haga Train the Trainers project Directorate for Civil Protection and emer-gency Planning (DSB)

90 665 17 425

202 UK01 Digital Innovations for Growth Academy

European Centre for Women and Technol-ogy (ECWT) Associa-tion

355 561 38 648

SUM PARTNER GRANTS VET PROJECTS 2014 490 160




Granted to org.

202 DE02 European mobility network for vocational training in floristy

NTI-MMM Multilateral Monitoring and Man-agement

303 780 36 233

202 NL01 Development Project for Railway Signalling Engineering trainers

The Norwegian Na-tional Rail Administra-tion

180 318 30 585

202 UK01 Assistive Living Training and Skills Kvinesdal municipality 357 778 38 327

202 BE02 Supported Employment Quality Framework Supported Employ-ment Norge (SENO)

271 810 49 499

202 DE02 Common vocational Training to Master in the Baltic Sea Region

Nordisk Håndverks-forum (labor associa-tion)

420 460 19 477

202 DK01 Konsekvenspædagogisk vejledning i sociale handlingskompetencer

Bergeland upper sec-ondary school

282 330 50 856

43


Granted to org.

202 NL01 European Crane Operator Licence Kranutleierens Landsforening (labor association)

211 019 20 723

202 DE02 Sustainable Construction in the Refurbish-ment

Stavset Bygg AS (com-pany)

296 977 16 238


Stend upper second-ary school

282 330 50 856

202 SE01

IHEM: Improving the long-term outcomes in children with congenital anomalies by im-plementing an Innovative Health Educa-tional Module for staff in health care and NGO settings.


268 502 29 915

202 DE02 Sustainable Construction in the Refurbish-ment

Borgund upper sec-ondary school

296 977 45 194

202 FR01 European Professional Bachelor Programme Borgund upper sec-ondary school

200 265 35 903

202 CZ01 Teaching in the digital age Byåsen upper second-ary school

136 530 20 905

202 TR01 Men Talk: Alternative language learning techniques for male learners active in the tourism sector

Bergen adult educa-tion

280 335 56 090


Haugaland upper secondary school

282 330 51 650

202 NO01 Process VET from Chemi to Pharma Kristiansund upper secondary school

237 584 33 310

202 UK01 Transparency of credit allocation in VET and HE in Manufacturing

EUROMASC - Europe-an Masters of Skilled Crafts

281 635 57 605

202 RO01 SKILLS+ - Soft skills development pro-gramme for micro-companies in ICT sector

European Centre for Women and Technol-ogy (ECWT) associa-tion

133 325 30 210

202 ES01 Cloud and Internet Services with Open Source Software for SMEs

Østfold University College

205 160 23 050

202 IT01 LEAN: Training by doing and training on the go as effective approaches to lean manufac-turing

University of Stavang-er

298 800 48 385



44



Granted to org.

202 SE01 VET-related language courses for mil-lions of refugees in Europe

Hero Norge AS (company) 293 240 7 725

202 SK01 Inováciou didaktiky rómskeho jazyka k inkluzívnemu vzdelávaniu žiakov zo znevýhodneného prostredia

Nansen Peace Center (foundation)

238 005 14 830

202 DE02 Digital media competence for educa-tional staff in early childhood educa-tion

Ringer i vann AS (compa-ny)

441 845 46 585

202 SE01 Pan-European Competency Certificate for Shot firer/blast designer by Europe-an Federation of Explosive Engineers

Kure Fjellspreningsteknikk (company)

408 413 56 012

202 BE02 SMART house through internet of things

Kongsberg upper second-ary school

56 950 17 725

202 NO01

Optimized Training - Innovative Meth-ods and tools for Acceptance of prior Learning in qualifications and work-place training

Frøya upper secondary school

376 437 64 327

202 DE02 Sharing, Learning And Developing Eu-ropean Neets Opportunities

Folkeuniversitetet Midt-Norge (foundation)

193 525 61 504

202 FI01

App Mentor; Introducing mobile tech-nology as a tool to strengthen the mentoring process during work based learning.

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School

226 911 36 552

202 UK01 Matching needs and expectations of trainees and companies hosting for a successful internship

Akershus regional county 168 829 21 008

202 NO01 Qualification assessments for refugee training and employment: Fast track with ECVET and Skills bank

EUROMASC - European Masters of Skilled Crafts

320 938 19 455

202 IT01 Diagnosis and Actions for Young People Looking for a Better Future

Oslo and Akershus Univer-sity College of Applied Sciences

327 580 54 210

202 NO01 Qualification assessments for refugee training and employment: Fast track with ECVET and Skills bank

Oslo and Akershus Univer-sity College of Applied Sciences

320 938 22 406

202 IT01 BIM4PLACEMENT European key com-petences in building and construction


202 SE01 Learning to Innovate with Families Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

286 893 61 918



Figure 4 shows the nationality of the coordinator in VET projects where Norwegian institutions are

partners. Compared with the other education sectors, quite many are partners in Norwegian-

coordinated partnerships. Germany, United Kingdom and Sweden are other important coordinating

countries in the VET sector.

45

Figure 4: Norwegian partners in VET projects (KA202), by country of coordinator, 2014-16

NOTE: The number of Norwegian partners (7) is lower than in Figure 3 (10), because that figure also includes KA200 projects. Source: Erasmus+ Project Results database: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Germany

Norway

UK

Sweden

Czech Rep.

France

Denmark

Netherlands

Belgium

Italy

Lithuania

Spain

FYR Macedonia

Turkey

Iceland

Slovakia

Poland

Romania

Finland

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/


46

Strategic partnerships in higher education In key EU policy papers covering all educational fields, the following priority/benchmark is related to

the higher education sector specifically:

At least 40 per cent of the younger generation should have a tertiary degree (Europe 2020 and

ET2020).

In the introductory chapter we listed the horizontal priorities of the Erasmus+ programme, address-

ing all educational sectors. In addition to these, there are some specific priorities applying to higher

education strategic partnerships. These are outlined in the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda, and in

the 2013 Communication on Opening Up Education:

Increasing attainment levels.

Improving the quality and relevance of higher education.

Strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation.

Making the knowledge triangle work, including by inter-disciplinary cooperation.

Improving governance and funding.

Promoting the development of new modes of delivery.

Exploiting and responding to new technologies in learning and teaching.

Applications and success rate, HE sector Table 30 shows the number of submitted and approved higher education applications in the first

three calls. The number of submitted applications was fairly constant in these years, but in 2016 the

success rate fell to its lowest, only 20 per cent. The assessment sum of the partnerships selected

ranged from 81 to 92 points, well above the 60 points threshold. The quality of the 2016 application

round was particularly high, with the three partnerships selected scoring 90 and 91 points (six other

applications scored between 82 and 88.5 points and were put on the reserve list, due to lack of more

funds). Such a gap between the number of good applications and a low success rate might be prob-

lematic, should it persist over time, if discouraging the target group of the strategic partnerships

action from making the effort of applying in future calls.

Table 30: Applications and success rates in 2014-16, higher education sector


2014 17 5 29 %

2015 17 6 35 %

2016 15 4 27 %

Source: EPlusLink

47

Projects, coordinating organisations and grants awarded, HE Table 31-Table 33 provide an overview of the partnerships in the higher education sector, coordinat-

ed by Norwegian organisations and approved in 2014-16. Of the fourteen partnerships, three had the

minimum number of partners (three including the coordinator). For the remaining partnerships, the

number of partners including the coordinator varied between four and ten. There is no proportionali-

ty between the number of partners and the size of the grant. The eleven strategic partnerships in

higher education received altogether 4.2 million euros in these first three annual calls.

Table 31: Partnerships in the higher education sector selected in 2014


Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

200 University of Bergen Aramaic-Online Project 5 497 168

200 Norwegian doctors against nuclear weapon (associa-tion)

Medical Peace Work 3 - Strengthening Health Workers' Performance in Violence Prevention and Peace Building

10 290 53

203 The Oslo School of Architec-ture and Design

Confronting Wicked Problems: Adapting Architectural Education to the New Situa-tion in Europe

10 285 27


Universal Design in Higher Education - Li-cence to Learn

3 138 44

203 University of Stavanger Development and Implementation of Inter-active Mobile E-learning Apps for European Nursing Education

3 425 209

SUM GRANTS HIGHER EDUCATION 2014 1 635 501




Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

203 Volda University College Euro-anime 7 122 38

203 Norwegian University of Life sciences

Landscape Education for Democracy 6 307 79

203 Oslo and Akershus Universi-ty College of Applied Sci-ences

Relevance in practice placements - inclu-sion of marginalized people

3 168 73


Professional Teacher Education through University Schools

9 220 38

203 Norwegian Academy of Music

ECMA - Next Step 10 399 85


European Lean Enterprise Alliance Network 8 349 85



48



Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)


Serious Games and Welfare Technology 6 296 65


Electronic International Forum for Teacher Educator Development

8 407 106

203 University of Oslo

Strategic Partnership to Promote Core Aca-demic Values and Welcome Refugees and Threatened Academics to European Cam-puses

4 304 105

203 Norwegian School of eco-nomics

Sustainable Business Models 4 183 73



15 higher education projects with a Norwegian coordinator were funded in the first three annual

calls of the Erasmus+ programme; 2 KA200 and 13 KA203. The Norwegian University of Science and

Technology (NTNU) coordinates as many as five of the fifteen projects. Except from this concentra-

tion at NTNU (also coordinating three VET strategic partnerships) the HE projects are distributed over

a range of institutions. Thirteen of the fifteen strategic partnerships in higher education are, howev-

er, coordinated by institutions in the four largest cities; Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim or Stavanger.

NTNU (with 5 projects)

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design

University of Bergen

Sør-Trøndelag University College

University of Stavanger

Volda University College

Norwegian University of Life sciences

Oslo and Akershus University College

Norwegian Academy of Music

University of Oslo

Norwegian School of Economics

In the 2014 call, only three of the seventeen applicants had participated in the prior LLP programme

(two Erasmus Intensive Programmes and one Transfer of Innovation project). Thus there is not a

strong continuity from the LLP to Erasmus+ when it comes to participation in higher education stra-

tegic partnerships.

49

Types of institutions in HE partnerships Table 34 provides an overview of types of institutions participating in Norwegian-coordinated part-

nerships, according to the institutional categories they have ticked off in the application. As in the

case of school and VET partnerships, a large group has ticked off for “other”. However, the majority

have chosen the category “higher education institution”.

Table 34: Types of institutions in higher education partnerships, 2014-16

Type No



Multimedia company 4

European NGO 2



School/institute/educational centre – General education (secondary level) 1

Concert hall 1

Pan-European network active in the culture sector 1

Festival 1

Research institute/centre 1

Large enterprise 1

EU-wide network 1

European NGO 1

Other 30

Source: EPlusLink.

Activities in HE partnerships Table 35-Table 36 show the grant amount allocated for different activities in the higher education

partnerships in 2014 and 2015 (data for 2016 are not yet available). In both years, the largest sum

was allocated for project outputs, followed by project management. Short term learning, training

and teaching assignments received a relatively small share of the total grant amount awarded in

2014. In 2015 this share was considerably higher.

Table 35: Strategic partnerships higher education, activities 2014

Awarded projects



amount awarded



934 998 57 %

Total short-term learning, training, teaching Activities

105 225 6 %

Total other costs 110 000 7 % Total 1 635 963 100 %


50

Table 36: Strategic partnerships higher education, activities 2015

Awarded projects



amount awarded



632 392 40 %

Total short-term learning, training, teaching Activities

321 020 21 %


Total 1 564 972 100 %


Countries of cooperation in HE partnerships Erasmus+ strategic partnerships in higher education must involve at least three organisations from

three different programme countries. The number of participants (coordinator included) in the fif-

teen Norwegian-coordinated partnerships varies from three to ten. In total there are 96 partners,

which means 6,4 on average per project.

Measured in number of partner institutions from a given country, Germany is the most prominent

country of cooperation in the higher education sector, followed by United Kingdom, the Netherlands

and Belgium. Only two partner institutions are from a so-called «partner countries» (Russia and

USA). The international dimension, meaning cooperation with the world outside the EU/EEC, is thus

limited in higher education Erasmus+ strategic partnerships. As seen in Figure 5, some partnerships

also include Norwegian partners (the coordinator is not included in this number).

51

Figure 5: Strategic partnerships in the higher education sector (KA200 and KA203) per country, 2014-16

Source: EPlusLink. In some projects, there are several partners from the same countries. These are counted sep-arately.

Priorities and topics in HE partnerships Applicants are asked to select from a pre-defined list the programme priorities that are relevant to

the projects.13 The fifteen partnerships funded have selected between one and three priorities. As

the list in Table 37 shows, the most frequently selected one is «Improving the quality and relevance

of HE» (selected by 33 per cent of the partneships). This is not so surprising, given that the superior

goal of Norwegian internationalisation policy is to improve the quality and relevance of Norwegian

higher education. Improved quality and relevance is also one of the sector specific priorities.

13

In 2014, applicants could select one or more priorities from a pre-defined list, whereas in 2015 they were firstly asked to select one «most relevant» priority and then secondly any number of «other relevant» priori-ties.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Germany

UK

Netherlands

Belgium

Norway

Italy

Austria

Czech Rep.

Ireland

Spain

Denmark

Sweden

France

Hungary

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Romania

Slovenia

Russia

USA

52

Table 37: Priorities in higher education partnerships 2014-16


Improving the quality and relevance of HE 5

Open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era 4

Contributing to the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems as outlined in the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda

3

Supporting the production and adaption of Open Educational Resources in diverse European languages

3

Supporting the implementation of reforms in line with the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda's priority areas

3

Making the knowledge triangle work 2

Promoting empowerment, participation and the active citizenship of young people 2

Supporting implementation of the 2013 Communication on Opening Up Education 2

Developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods 1

Enhancing digital integration in learning, teaching, training and youth work at various levels 1

Increasing the efficiency of public expenditure and the investment in education, training and youth

1

Promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people 1

Promoting young people's social inclusion and well-being 1

Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the teaching professions 1

Strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation 1

Strengthening the profile of the teaching professions 1

Inclusive education, training and youth 1

Strengthening the recruitment, selection and induction of educators 1

Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and training 1

Source: EPlusLink

The applicants are also asked to select the most relevant topics addressed by their project, from a

pre-defined list. The most frequently selected topic, chosen by eleven of the fifteen projects sup-

ported (73 per cent), is «new innovative curricula/education methods/development of training

courses» (Table 38). 33 per cent selected “Open and distance learning”.

The portfolio covers a wide range of topics relevant to the programme, but with a clear prominence

of projects focusing on higher education learning and teaching methods, and less on social problems,

political and work life topics.

Table 38: Topics in higher education partnerships 2014-16


New innovative curricula/education methods/development of training courses 11

Open and distance learning 5

Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship) 4

ICT - new technologies - digital competences 3

Creativity and culture 2

Health and wellbeing 2

Inclusion - equity 2

53


Pedagogy and didactics 2

Teaching and learning of foreign languages 2

Access for disadvantaged 1

Disabilities - special needs 1

Entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education 1

EU Citizenship, EU awareness and democracy 1


Quality improvement institutions and/or methods (incl. school development) 1

Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers 1



Post-conflict/post-disaster rehabilitation 1


Energy and resources 1

Source: EPlusLink

Norwegian partners in HE projects Concerning Norwegian partners in partnerships coordinated by another institution, in Norway or

abroad, the information we have access to is less detailed and reliable, compared to the data on

Norwegian-coordinated projects. Some partnerships may be active, that are not included in the list

(Table 39-Table 41).

Table 39: Norwegian partners in HE projects coordinated by another institution, 2014


Granted to org.

203 HU01

Three layers of telling a story: creation of joint curricula in the higher educa-tion of cinematographers, puppeteers and applied theatre practitioners

Bergen University College

380 730 42 425

203 IS01 NAIP: Innovation in European Higher Music Education


246 623 33 136

203 DE01 European Media Cloud Campus Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

209 240 34 390

203 DE01 MOOC Accessibility Partnership Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

448 404 52 283

203 SE01 An interdisciplinary approach to work-ing with children and young people with complex needs


217 555 47 515

203 DK01 Collaboration and Innovation for Bet-ter, Personalized and IT-Supported Teaching


449 966 61 634

203 NL01 Support Centres for Open education and MOOCS in different Regions of Europe 2020

The Arctic University of Norway

277 662 37 867

54


Granted to org.

203 TR01 Undergraduate curriculum and e-course on Evidence-Based Dentistry


167 503 28 429

203 SE01 Establishing a Nordic Consortium for China Studies


203 UK01 Quality Audit Tool for School Leaders University of Oslo 207 571 36 185

203 BE01 European Humanitarian Action Part-nership


347 730 11 941

SUM PARTNER GRANTS HIGHER EDUCATION PROJECTS 2014 419 500




Granted to org.

203 NO01 Euro-anime Raindog Studios (com-pany)

122 318 15 850

203 NO01 Professional Teacher Education through University Schools

Charlottenlund upper secondary school

219 670 14 635

203 EE01 Modernising European Higher Music Edu-cation through Improvisation


347 675 28 956

203 EE01 Education and training in early detection of breast cancer for health care professionals


294 580 36 120

203 LT01 Risk and Security Governance Studies with-in Baltic – Nordic Academic Community of Practice


203 NO01 Professional Teacher Education through University Schools

Trondheim municipali-ty

219 670 18 085

203 NO01 European Lean Enterprise Alliance Network Kongsberg maritime AS (company)

349 475 16 566

203 PL01 Development of Innovative Academy on the basis of DT teaching


166 601 41 222

203 UK01 Development of innovative e-learning and teaching through strategic partnerships in Global Health Education

University of Bergen 371 717 86 708

203 IS01 Gender and Philosophy: Developing learn-ing and teaching practices to include un-derrepresented groups


203 SE01 Nordic Particle Accelerator Program University of Oslo 327 725 27 535

203 DE01 New Culture in Higher Education: Project-Oriented Learning Beyond Borders


402 229 107 042



55



Granted to org.

203 NO01 Serious Games and Welfare Technology 3D Motion Technolo-gies AS

296 391 15 955

203 PL01 Innovative Learning Approaches for Im-plementation of Lean Thinking to Enhance Office and Knowledge Work Productivity

Salte AS (company) 218 895 12 285

203 DK01 Reflective Entrepreneurial Music Education – World class


234 135 38 010

203 LI01 Society in Motion Bergen School of Ar-chitecture

209 530 55 073

203 UK01 Sharing Learning from Practice to improve Patient Safety


431 996 57 552

203 EE01 Modernized teaching material and meth-odology for road safety educators

Nord-Trøndelag Uni-versity College

132 110 39 660

203 BE02 Strategic Partnership: Agents of Change in Education

Stord-Haugesund Uni-versity College

266 420 54 910

203 PL01 Innovative Learning Approaches for Im-plementation of Lean Thinking to Enhance Office and Knowledge Work Productivity


203 IS01 Co-Produced Mental Health Nursing Edu-cation

Hedmark University College

203 324 28 242

203 FR01 Facing Europe in Crisis: Shakespeare’s World and Present Challenges


203 DE01 Intercultural learning in mathematics and science initial teacher education


431 750 37 734

203 DK01 School Adoption in Teacher Education NTNU) 210 075 34 785



As seen in Figure 6, most Norwegian partners are active in a project coordinated by another Norwe-

gian institution. The next country is Germany, and we see that Norwegian partners are almost exclu-

sively in projects coordinated from Northern European countries.

56

Figure 6: Norwegian partners in HE projects (KA203), by country of coordinator, 2014-16

Source: Erasmus+ Project Results database: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/

0 1 2 3 4 5

Norway

Germany

Iceland

Sweden

Estonia

Denmark

UK

Poland

Belgium

Hungary

Netherlands

Turkey

Lithuania

Lichtenstein

France


57

Strategic partnerships in adult education In key policy papers, covering all education sectors, the following priorities and benchmarks relate to

adult education:

To modernise labour markets and empower people by developing their skills throughout the

lifecycle with a view to increase labour participation and better match labour supply and demand

(Flagship initiative “An agenda for new skills and jobs”, Europe 2020)

Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality: The challenges posed by demographic change and

the regular need to update and develop skills in line with the changing economic and social cir-

cumstances call for a lifelong approach to learning and for education and training systems which

are more responsive to change and more open to the wider world (ET2020).

By 2020, an average of at least 15 per cent of adults should participate in lifelong learning

(ET2020).

Reduce the number of low-skilled adults through high quality adult basic skills programmes, par-

ticularly through workplace learning. Efforts are necessary to increase the current alarmingly low

participation levels in adult learning in most member states (Rethinking Education).

In field-specific policy papers the focus is likewise on widening access to adult learning and education

and remove barriers to participation. Adult education is related to labour market participation, to

reduce labour shortages due to demographic changes, but also to upgrade low-skilled workers, re-

duce poverty and social exclusion and increase integration of migrants in society.

The following points are highlighted in the European Agenda for adult education (2011):

Enhance the possibilities for adults, regardless of gender and their personal family circumstances,

to access high-quality learning opportunities at any time in their lives (…).

Develop a new approach to adult education and training which focuses on learning outcomes

and learner responsibility (…).

Foster greater awareness among adults that learning is a lifelong endeavour (…).

Encourage the development of effective lifelong guidance systems, as well as integrated systems

for the validation of non-formal and informal learning.

Ensure the comprehensive provision of high-quality formal and non-formal education and train-

ing for adults aimed at acquiring key competences (…).

Ensure flexible arrangements adapted to different training needs of adults, including in-company

training and workplace-based learning.

Foster greater awareness among employers that adult learning contributes to promoting produc-

tivity, competitiveness, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship (…).

Encourage higher education institutions to embrace less traditional groups of learners (…).

58

Promote the role of social partners and civil society in articulating training needs and developing

learner opportunities for adults (…).

Promote a balanced allocation of education and training resources throughout the life cycle on

the basis of shared responsibilities and strong public commitment (…).

Involve social partners and raise awareness of the benefits, also to them, of learning in the work-

place (…)

Make well-developed learning provision for seniors, in order to promote active, autonomous,

and healthy ageing (…).

Make a strong commitment to promoting adult learning as a means of fostering solidarity be-

tween different age groups and between cultures and people of all backgrounds.

Quality and accessibility are also field-specific priorities for strategic partnerships in adult education.

Three priorities are listed in the Erasmus+ programme guide 2016:

Improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities that are tailored to indi-

vidual adult learners’ needs, including through innovative ways of validation, guidance and deliv-

ery to groups most in need.

Extending and developing educators’ competences, particularly in the effective use of ICT in

adult learning, for better outreach and improved learning outcomes.

Designing and implementing effective provision for enhancing the basic skills (literacy, numeracy

and digital) and key competences of specific adult target groups that are currently not well

served.

Applications and success rate, adult education sector In the first call in 2014, two of five projects were selected for funding, giving a success rate of 40 per

cent (Table 42). In 2015, four out of seven applications were selected, which gives a success rate of

29 per cent, whereas the selection in 2016 was four of seven, or 57 per cent success rate.

Table 42: Applications and success rates in 2014-16, adult education


2014 5 2 40 %

2015 7 2 29 %

2016 7 4 57 %

Source: EPlusLink

Projects, coordinating organisations and grants awarded, adult education Table 43 provides an overview of the partnerships in the adult education sector coordinated by Nor-

wegian organisations, approved in 2014-16.

59

Table 43: Partnerships in adult education selected in 2014-16


Total grant

(€1000)

Coord. grant

(€1000)

2014


Mobile enhanced tools and approaches for innovative language learning and assess-ment

5 294 94

200 Møllehagen school centre

EXPLORE – Innovative and successful out-door training models for disadvantaged young learners to improve their basic skills, self-awareness and social interaction

5 276 78

2015

204 Folkeuniversitetet Øst (Foundation)

Vocational Language for Care and New Opportunities for Migrants

5 261 74

204 European Centre for Wom-en and Technology (ECWT) Association

We are dreamers, we are shapers, we are what we want to be

5 243 55

2016

204 Porsgrunn municipality – Centre of adult learning

Inverted Classroom Online 6 232 60

204 Fønix AS (human resources enterprise)

Basic skills training as strategy for vocation-al training in companies

6 217 54

204 Oslo Voksenopplæring Sin-sen (Centre of adult educa-tion/learning)

Improving Basic Skills and Methodologies for the 21st Century

3 55 23

204 Lillehammer University College

Developing on-line training resources for adult refugees

4 110 41

SUM GRANTS ADULT EDUCATION 2014-16 1 688 479


Types of institutions in adult education partnerships Table 44 shows the types of institutions participating in Norwegian-coordinated partnerships in adult

education, according to the institutional categories they have selected in the application form. Ex-

cept for the category “other”, which is particularly numerous in the adult education sector, most

have selected adult education centre/school and higher education institution.

Table 44: Types of institutions in adult education partnerships, 2014-16

Type No

School/institute/educational centre – adult education 8


European NGO 2

Foundation 1


Local public body 1


Other 20

Source: EPlusLink

60

Activities in adult education partnerships Table 45 and Table 46 show the grant amount allocated for different activities in the adult education

partnerships in 2014 and 2015 (data for 2016 are not yet available). In both years, the largest sum

was allocated to project outputs, followed by project management. Compared to partnerships in the

other education sectors, it is striking that short-term learning, training and teaching activities make

up a very small part of the total the grant amount awarded.

Table 45: Strategic partnerships adult education, activities 2014

Awarded projects



amount awarded



359 574 63 %



Total 570 244 100 %


Table 46: Strategic partnerships adult education, activities 2015

Awarded projects



amount awarded



349 438 69 %



Total 504 338 100 %


Countries of cooperation in adult education partnerships Figure 7 shows the nationality of institutions participating in Norwegian coordinated partnerships in

adult education. Italy is on top, followed by Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Portugal.

61

Figure 7: Strategic partnerships in adult education (KA204) per country, 2014-16


Priorities and topics in adult education partnerships Applicants are asked to select, from a pre-defined list, topics that describe their project, as well as

priorities describing the objectives of the programme. As for topics, one stands out: many partner-

ships work with new innovative curricula/educational methods (Table 48). 75 per cent have selected

this topic. Regarding priorities there is no pattern (Table 47). The partnerships have ticked off for a

range of different priorities that suit their project.

Table 47: Priorities in adult education partnerships, 2014-16


Supporting the production and adoption of open educ. resources in diverse Eur. languages 1 Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the teaching professions 1 Improving the attainment of young people with low basic skills 1 Contributing to a reduction in the number of low-skilled adults (re- and up-skilling of adults) 1 Reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners 1 Adult educators’ competences 1 Fostering access to continuing VET, including groups at risk 1 High quality learning opportunities 1 Adult education: designing and implementing effective provision for enhancing the basic skills and key competences

1

Adult education: improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities 1 Adult education: extending and developing educators’ competences 1 School education: strengthening the profile of teaching professions 1 Horizontal: inclusive education, training and youth 1 Horizontal: improve achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences in a lifelong learning perspective

1

Source: EPlusLink

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Italy

Spain

Germany

UK

Portugal

Greece

Sweden

Austria

Norway

Denmark

Croatia

Iceland

Slovenia

Macedonia

62

Table 48: Topics in adult education partnerships, 2014-16

Topic (chosen from a pre-defined list of approx. 50 topics) Chosen by, out

of 8 projects

New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses 6

ICT – new technologies – digital competences 3


Key competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills 2

Gender equality/equal opportunities 2

Teaching and learning of foreign languages 2


Access for disadvantaged 1


Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education 1

Overcoming skills mismatch (basic/transversal) 1


Source: EPlusLink

Norwegian partners in adult education projects Table 49-51 provide an overview of Norwegian institutions participating as partners in partnerships

coordinated by another institution, in Norway or abroad. As we have underlined earlier, these data

are not as reliable as the data available on Norwegian-coordinated partnerships. There might be ac-

tive partnerships that are not included in the list.

Table 49: Norwegian partners in adult education projects coordinated by another institution, 2014


Granted to org.

204 BE02 Action plan for validation and non-formal adult education

Nordic Network for Adult Learning

142 111 37 302

204 BE02 LIFE, ALL IN: Connecting formal and infor-mal learning to enhance social inclusion

Oslo Voksenopplæring Skullerud (Oslo adult education)

244 627 51 543

204 TR01 ICT in Daily Life and E-Learning in Adult Education

Oslo Voksenopplæring Skullerud (Oslo adult education)

246 437 29 652

204 ES01

LIGHTHOUSE Supporting lifelong learning and career paths for migrants by tailored counselling and recognition of prior learning to improve skills, employability and mobility


289 145 44 230

204 MT01 Breaking Barriers - Embracing Literacy through Digital Media

Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning (VOX)

413 000 21 094

SUM PARTNER GRANTS ADULT EDUCATION PROJECTS 2014 183 821


63



Granted to org.

204 PT01 Radicalisation Prevention in Prisons Directorate of Norwe-gian Correctional Service

330 526 34 333

204 DK01 Learner-Based Training: An Innovative Approach to Foreign Language Learning

Studieforbundet Folkeuniversitetet (foundation)

247 975 38 169

204 DE02 Let Europe Know about Adult Education Nordic Network for Adult Learning

263 370 29 540

204 FI01 IDEAL - Integrating Digital Education in Adult Literacy

Arendal adult educa-tion

197 851 28 391

204 DE02 Multifunctional Agriculture as a Driver for Innovation in rural Europe

County governor of Hordaland

292 201 62 503

204 IE01 Home Based Care - Home Based Education Fleksibel utdanning Norge (organisation)

59 269 15 390

204 ES01 Adiós al Absentismo en la Educación de Adultos

Folkeuniversitetet Midt-Norge (founda-tion)

34 970 7 520

204 FI01 Teaching and Learning for Life in Europe Rogaland school and business development association

140 581 27 870

204 UK01 Managing Money: Development of finan-cial capability in adult education using technology

Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning (VOX)

359 586 37 666

204 IT02 Learning to Learn by Teaching 2 Vest-Lofoten upper secondary school

149 644 16 767

204 IT02 Heritage training for young adults Buskerud and Vestfold University College

350 235 86 470

204 TR01 Participation of Refugees into Social Life Intermezzo youth organisation

133 805 16 960

204 PL01 Daily innovators and daily educators in the libraries

Oppland county coun-cil

300 853 88 316

204 ES01 Fostering Coding Education in Europe European Centre for Women and technol-ogy (ECWT)

165 133 26 397

204 SE01 Shortening Distance to Labour Market for young people with risk for unemployment and social exclusion -

European Centre for Women and technol-ogy (ECWT)

431 054 57 020





Granted to org.

204 DE02 New talents for companies – Developing the potentials of immigrants and refugees

Oslo adult education Rosenhof

345 275 35 825

204 MK01 Train Brain Soft - Development of standardized curriculum and e-tool for soft skills personnel

NHO SERVICE (labour market organisation)

185 047 33 337

64


Granted to org.

204 IS01 Intercultural Skills and Learning Activities for New Development

Kristiansund adult education

138 420 18 520

204 BE02 The Future Teacher 3.0 as a bridge to accessi-ble and customised adult education

Norsk Nettskole AS (private school)

259 136 52 843

204 IS01 Catch the BALL - Create a Dynamic Third Age Nord-Trøndelag re-gional county

177 537 36 116

204 IS01 Intercultural Skills and Learning Activities for New Development

HANEN (business organisation)

138 420 18 520

204 EE01 Together: best practices exchange for integrat-ing refugees

Møre og Romsdal regional county

87 265 17 960

204 FR01 Digital community and Innovation in adult education and Basic Skills


438 135 48 230

204 DE02 Learning place Bio-Farm Norwegian University of Life Sciences

278 209 34 070



Figure 8 shows Norwegian institutions in adult education partnerships selected in 2014-2016, accord-

ing to the nationality of the coordinating institution. German coordinated partnerships are on the

top, but as the number of partnerships is limited these differences should not be too much empha-

sised. It is rather the large spread which is striking.

Figure 8: Norwegian partners in adult education projects (KA204), by country of coordinator, 2014-16


0 1 2 3 4

Denmark

Estonia

France

Ireland

Malta

Poland

Portugal

Sweden

UK

Turkey

Finland

Italy

Spain

Belgium

Iceland

Germany


65

Strategic partnerships addressing more than one sector, 2014 In 2014, there was a separate Key Action, KA200, for projects addressing more than one sector.

KA200 projects with a Norwegian coordinator have been included in the sector chapters, according

to the sectorial belonging of the coordinating institution (specified in the application). For projects

coordinated by institutions in other countries, with Norwegian partner, we do not have access to the

application, and the projects therefore cannot easily be organised according to education sector. For

this reason we present them separately in Table 52.

Table 52: Norwegian partners in projects addressing more than one sector (KA200), 2014


Granted to org.

200 NO01 Improving Language Learning Kopervik upper sec-ondary school

87 540 10 175

200 NO01 Skillstube: Video recordings of skills perfor-mance linked to ECVET descriptions

Norasonde AS (com-pany)

299 551 24 040

200 FI01 Space for Science – Implementing Innova-tions in Science Education

Tananger lower sec-ondary school

154 597 34 025

200 TR01 Beat Cyberbullying; Embrace Safer Cyber-space

Øystein Samnøen (organisation)

130 091 16 390

200 HR01 Training for Renewable Energy Network Development

International Devel-opment Norway

218 361 14 955

200 IT02 A New Energy Culture: Sustainability and Territories

Norwegian oil and gas archives

426 329 104 499

200 SE01 Entrepreneurial AssessmeNt Rakkestad lower sec-ondary school

279 740 42 810

200 NO01 Juvenil Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis and Education

Norwegian Spielmey-er-Vogt association

214 765 12 505

200 NO02 Young Eyes Innovation Circle Network

125 886 34 446

200 SE01 Active ageing and Heritage in Adult learning Lillehammer museum foundation

291 403 46 710

200 UK01 Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Educa-tion Pedagogies

Akademiet Bergen AS (private school)

448 133 25 261

200 IS01 FLIP - Flipped Learning in Praxis Sandvika upper sec-ondary school

199 247 17 189

200 SE01 Joint Efforts To Combat Dropout Borg upper secondary school

299 942 23 279

200 NL01 Sign Language Teachers in Europe: an Open Educational Resource

Statped Heimdal, region midt (public body)

323 785 32 269

200 SE01 Entrepreneurial AssessmeNt Østfold Young Entre-preneurship (organi-sation)

279 740 27 160

200 UK01 Educating adults about volunteering and organic food production on farm enterprises

WWOOF Norway 124 140 12 818

200 FR01 winds and tides Knarvik upper sec-ondary school

402 442 123 692

200 NO01 Improving Language Learning Sandnes upper sec-ondary school

87 540 10 175

200 SE01 Joint Efforts To Combat Dropout Østfold regional coun-ty

299 942 49 090

66


Granted to org.

200 NO01

EXPLORE – Innovative and successful out-door training models for disadvantaged young learners to improve their basic skills, self-awareness and social interaction


275 768 23 121

200 NO02 Value Adding Project

NITIN – Nordic Insti-tute for Training and International Net-working

143 303 40 810

200 EL01 Therapeutic Exercise at the Work Space Buskerud and Vestfold University College

134 000 30 386


EUROMASC - Europe-an Masters of Skilled Crafts

299 551 27 080

200 FR01 In living memory : an education and creation process with European archives

Westerdals College - Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology

291 821 29 745

200 DK01 Augmented Reality for Science Education Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

365 357 70 525



299 551 29 824

200 NL01 Professional capacity dealing with diversity Østfold University College

431 335 41 065

200 UK01 Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Educa-tion Pedagogies


448 133 75 817

200 FI01 Space for Science – Implementing Innova-tions in Science Education


154 597 17 670

200 NO01 Improving Language Learning University of Stavang-er

87 540 7 720

200 NO01 Medical Peace Work 3 - Strengthening Health Workers' Performance in Violence Prevention and Peace Building


200 EL01 Language Massive Open Online Courses Norwegian University of Science and Tech-nology (NTNU)

206 994 43 144

SUM PARTNER GRANTS PROJECTS ADDRESSING MORE THAN ONE SECTOR 2014 1 040 155


As we see from Figure 9, these 32 partners are spread across projects coordinated by institutions in

12 countries, with Norwegian coordinator on the top.

67

Figure 9: Projects in more than one sector (KA200) with Norwegian partners, by coordinating country, 2014


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Norway

Sweden

UK

France

Greece

Netherlands

Finland

Croatia

Denmark

Iceland

Italy

Turkey


68

Looking across sectors In this final chapter we compare some key findings across the four sectors. How do success rates,

partnerships size, activities, topics, priorities and countries of cooperation vary between the school,

VET, higher education and adult education sectors? We also juxtapose grants to Norwegian coordina-

tors and to Norwegian partners, in order to assess the financial balance of these two project roles.

Finally, we show who the particularly active Erasmus+ strategic partnership participants are, by list-

ing the institutions what are involved in two or more such partnerships; the record being the Norwe-

gian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), taking part in as many as 18 strategic partnerships

funded in the 2014, 2015 or 2016 calls.

Success rate Table 53 shows the success rate (number of selected projects as percentage of number of applica-

tions) in the four education sectors. The success rate in the VET sector has been very stable. In the

school sector the success rate has gone significantly up. One reason for this is that many institutions

in 2015 and 2016 applied for a lower grant compared with 2014. In higher education the success rate

went down in the 2016 call. The reason for this was a smaller overall budget.

Table 53: Success rate in different sectors, 2014-16

2014 2015 2016

School education total 26 % 47 % 52 %

Vocational education and training (VET) 46 % 45 % 45 %

Higher education (HE) 29 % 35 % 27 %

Adult education (AE) 40 % 29 % 57 %

Source: EplusLink

Looking at the total portfolio of Norwegian-coordinated strategic partnerships, the school sector

received the highest number of partnerships all the three years, as seen in Table 54. In 2015 and

2016 the school sector also received the largest share of the total grants awarded. In 2014 the higher

education sector, by a narrow margin, received the largest share.

69

Table 54: The portfolio of Norwegian coordinated partnerships: distribution between sectors

Number of partner-ships approved

Share of total number approved

Sum grants

(1000 €)

Share of total grants awarded

2014

School total 9 41 % 1 491 31 % VET 6 27 % 1 059 22 % Higher education 5 23 % 1 635 34 % Adult education 2 9 % 570 12 %

2015

School total 16 57 % 1 742 37 % VET 4 14 % 916 19 % Higher education 6 21 % 1 565 33 % Adult education 2 7 % 504 11 %

2016

School total 17 59 % 1 939 40 % VET 4 14 % 1 146 23 % Higher education 4 14 % 1 190 24 % Adult education 4 14 % 614 13 %

Source: SIU, the European Commission

Size of partnerships There are some noticeable differences between the education sectors when it comes to the size of

the partnerships, both in terms of budget and the number of partners. In the school sector the aver-

age number of partners (including coordinator) is five all three years. Within higher education the

average number of partners was six in 2014, seven in 2015 and six in 2016. In adult education part-

nerships the average number of partners was five in all three years. In the VET sector the average

number of partners was eight in 2014, seven in 2015 and twelve in 2016. It should be noted that

there are large differences in the size of VET-partnerships. In 2014 the smallest number of partners in

a VET-partnership was three and the highest number was 17. In 2016 the lowest number was four

and the highest number 22. There are no partnerships matching this number in the other education

sectors.

When it comes to the size of the budget, partnerships in the school sector have the lowest average,

except in 2014 when the average budget of adult education partnerships was lower. In general VET

and higher education partnerships are more costly than partnerships in the school sector and in adult

education. In 2015 and 2016 VET partnerships had the highest average budget.

Activities Table 55 and Table 56 provide an overview of the allocation of grants for different types of activities

in the different education sectors. Schools only partnerships and adult education partnerships stand

out with a distinct profile, when looking at these two years. Adult education partnerships have very

low allocations for short-term learning, training and teaching activities (mobility), and high alloca-

tions for project outputs. On the contrary schools only partnerships have large allocations for short-

term learning and teaching activities and low allocations for project outputs.

70

Table 55: Activities in different sectors 2014

School

standard format

Schools only

VET HE AE

Total project management 47 % 38 % 49 % 30 % 19 %

Total project outputs 37 % 3 % 31 % 57 % 63 %

Total short-term learning, training and teaching 11 % 59 % 17 % 6 % 5 %

Total other 5 % 3 % 7 % 13 %

Source: The European Commission

Table 56: Activities in different sectors 2015

School

standard format

Schools only

VET HE AE

Total project management 54 % 56 % 33 % 37 % 26 %

Total project outputs 31 % 3 % 46 % 40 % 69 %

Total short-term learning, training and teaching 15 % 41 % 17 % 21 % 1 %

Total other 17 % 2 % 4 %

Source: The European Commission

Topics and priorities Some topics and priorities stand out as more frequently selected across education sectors: early

school leaving, ICT/new technologies and new innovative curricula/educational methods are the top

three topics in both the school and the VET sector. ICT/new technology is also among the top three

topics in the adult education sector, and “new innovative curricula/education methods” among the

top three topics in higher education. “Revising and strengthening the professional profile of the

teaching professions” is among the top three priorities in the school sector, the VET sector and the

adult education sector.

Countries of cooperation There are stronger links to some countries than to others when looking at the number of partners

from different countries. Looking across sectors, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom are

important countries of cooperation (see Figure 10). Germany is a frequent country of cooperation in

all sectors, except within vocational education and training. Italy and Spain are also common coun-

tries of cooperation in all sectors, except within higher education. Many Norwegian-coordinated

partnerships also include additional Norwegian partner institutions, most noticeably in the VET sec-

tor.

71

Figure 10: Strategic partnerships in all sectors, Norwegian coordinator, partners per country, 2014-16


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Germany

Italy

Norway

Spain

UK

France

Austria

Belgium

Netherlands

Turkey

Ireland

Portugal

Denmark

Finland

Greece

Romania

Sweden

Poland

Iceland

Latvia

Slovenia

Czech Rep.

Slovakia

Croatia

Estonia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Palestine

South Africa

Switzerland

Hungary

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Macedonia

Russia

USA

72

Figure 11 shows the nationality of the coordinating institutions in partnerships, across all four sec-

tors, where Norwegian institutions are active as partners. Germany is at the clear top, followed by

Norway (meaning Norwegian partners in projects coordinated by other Norwegian institutions). The

United Kingdom is in third place, and then there is a gap down to Spain and Sweden.

Figure 11: Projects in all sectors with Norwegian partners, by coordinating country, 2014-16


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Germany

Norway

UK

Spain

Sweden

Netherlands

Belgium

France

Denmark

Iceland

Turkey

Poland

Italy

Estonia

Finland

Lithuania

Ireland

Portugal

Romania

Czech Rep.

Slovenia

Bulgaria

Greece

Austria

Croatia

FYR Macedonia

Hungary

Latvia

Lichtenstein

Malta

Slovakia


73

Grants to coordinators and partners Norwegian institutions enter Erasmus+ strategic partnerships either as coordinator or as partner.

Most of the money granted to Norwegian coordinators, by the Norwegian Erasmus+ national agency

SIU, will be sent out of Norway to partners located elsewhere. Reversely, there will be grants flowing

the other way, to Norwegian partners involved in projects coordinated from other countries. How is

the balance between these out- and ingoing money flows, for Erasmus+ strategic partnerships grant-

ed in 2014-16?

Table 57: Norwegian coordinators and partners, granted sums

Year

Project grant (1000€)

Coord./ partner grant (1000€)

Schools

Norwegian coordinators 2014 1 491 404

2015 1 742 492

2016 1 939 559

Norwegian partners 2014 0 891

2015 0 1 420

2016 0 1 406

Total school grants

5 172 5 172

Vocational education and training (VET)


2015 916 201

2016 1 146 237


2015 0 745

2016 0 538

Total VET grants

3 121 2 441

Higher education


2015 1 565 398

2016 1 190 349


2015 0 476

2016 0 466

Total higher education grants

4 390 2 610

Adult education

Norwegian coordinators 2014 570 172

2015 504 129

2016 614 178

Norwegian partners 2014

184

2015

573

2016

295

Total adult education grants

1 688 1 531

Projects addressing more than one sector (KA200) 2014

1 040

Total all four sectors 2014-16 14 371 12 794

Source: SIU, the European Commission.

74

The “project grant” coloumn in Table 57 shows the money granted by SIU to Norwegian-coordinated

strategic partnerships, whereas the last coloumn, “coordinator/partner grant”, shows the actual

sums received by Norwegian coordinators and partners. The last row in the table, “Total all four sec-

tors” shows that Norwegian institutions receive €1 575 000 less from abroad, than they send to insti-

tutions in other countries. Given the overall sums, more than 14 million Euros, this is still a consider-

able sum (however, there might be some lacking information about incoming grants – due to the

statistics going through the EU Commission and being dependent on information from more than 30

other national agencies). The conclusion is therefore that Norwegian institutions are less active as

partners than as coordinators, which is not the best news for everyone concerned with the «return

share» from Norway’s fee for participation in the Erasmus+ programme. The school and adult educa-

tion sectors seem to have the best «return rate». However, since many projects are cross-sectoral,

we should be careful to draw this conclusion. In 2014 there was also a separate key action (KA200)

for such sector-crossing projects, and these are not included in the sector-specific sums.

Norwegian institutions active in more than one partnership Table 58 provides an overview of Norwegian institutions participating in more than one partnership

in the period 2014-16, as partner, coordinator or both. Three institutions are particularly active: the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Oslo and Akershus University College of

Applied Sciences and the University of Stavanger. Higher education institutions are big institutions

and thus naturally have the capacity to be involved in more partnerships than schools. Among

Schools, Charlottenlund upper secondary school in Trondheim stands out as particularly active. As for

other types of organisations the NGO EUROMASC and the Rogaland School and Business Develop-

ment Foundation are prominent participants.

Table 58: Norwegian institutions active in more than one partnership, 2014-16

Institution/ organisation

Year KA Role Title Total € budget

Granted to org.

Askim upper secondary school

2014 202 Partner IT-solutions in Production and Busi-ness

198 140 45 858

2016 219 Partner Highlight Your Surroundings 219 920 25 795

Borgund upper secondary school

2015 202 Partner Sustainable Construction in the Re-furbishment

296 977 45 194

2015 202 Partner European Professional Bachelor Programme

200 265 35 903

Bryne upper secondary school

2014 201 Partner Values in Education: Teenagers in Action!

175 815 17 520

2015 219 Partner Culture and identity of European teenagers (express yourself)

135 915 27 045

Byåsen upper secondary school

2014 201 Partner Un teorema en la Biblioteca 239 140 35 810

2015 202 Partner Teaching in the digital age 136 530 20 905

75



Granted to org.

Charlottenlund upper secondary school

2014 202 Partner Work mentoring within a quality management system

187 235 31 572

2014 200 Coord. Completing Secondary Education 229 363 47 775

2015 201 Partner Coaching schools to face Change ahead

286 330 40 035

2015 203 Partner Professional Teacher Education through University Schools

219 670 14 635

2016 202 Partner App Mentor; Introducing mobile technology as a tool

226 911 36 552

EUROMASC European Masters of Skilled Crafts

2014 202 Partner YEBISU empowers employees 337 096 13 946

2014 200 Partner Skills tube: Video recordings of skills performance linked to ECVET de-scriptions

299 551 27 080

2014 205 Partner The Backstage – European Junior Backstage Technicians

296 985 44 968

2015 202 Partner Transparency of credit allocation in VET and HE in Manufacturing

281 635 57 605

2016 202 Partner Qualification assessments for refu-gee training and employment: Fast track with ECVET and Skills bank

320 938 19 455

2016 205 Partner Career guidance for young refugees 254 475 25 157

European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT)

2014 202 Partner Digital Innovations for Growth Acad-emy

355 561 38 648

2015 204 Partner Fostering Coding Education in Eu-rope

165 133 26 397

2015 204 Coord. We are dreamers, we are shapers, we are what we want to be

243 073 54 863

2015 202 Partner SKILLS+ - Soft skills development programme for micro-companies in ICT sector

133 325 30 210

2015 204 Partner Shortening Distance to Labour Mar-ket for young people with risk for unemployment and social exclusion

431 054 57 020

Folkeuniversitetet Midt-Norge (Founda-tion)

2015 204 Partner Adiós al Absentismo en la Educación de Adultos

34 970 7 520

2016 202 Partner Sharing, Learning And Developing European Needs Opportunities

193 525 61 504

Fræna upper second-ary school

2015 219 Coord. ICT use in classroom 70 160 38 080

2016 219 Coord. Refugee crises 55 600 30 800

Gausdal upper sec-ondary school

2014 201 Partner Master model to gain time in your classroom

242 209 36 552

2014 201 Partner EUapps4us 121 930 37 770

2016 219 Partner Sport, Health, Addiction and Relaxa-tion in Education

126 116 19 425

Haugaland upper sec-ondary school

2015 202 Partner Konsekvenspædagogisk vejledning i sociale handlingskompetencer

282 330 51 650

2015 202 Coord. Logged-on 317 958 82 629

76



Granted to org.


2014 200 Partner Mobilising and Transforming Teach-er Education Pedagogies

448 133 75 817

2015 203 Partner Education and training in early de-tection of breast cancer for health care professionals

294 580 36 120

2016 201 Partner Development of innovative digital learning solutions for transnational language and cultural education

135 825 56 590

2014 203 Partner Three layers of telling a story 380 730 42 425

Buskerud and Vestfold University College

2014 200 Partner Therapeutic Exercise at the Work Space

134 000 30 386

2015 204 Partner Heritage training for young adults 350 235 86 470


2014 203 Partner European Media Cloud Campus 209 240 34 390

2014 203 Partner MOOC Accessibility Partnership 448 404 52 283

2014 200 Partner Augmented Reality for Science Edu-cation

365 357 70 525

2014 200 Partner Skills tube 299 551 29 824

2014 203 Partner Working with children and young people with complex intellectual and developmental needs.

217 555 47 515

2015 203 Coord. Relevance in practice placements - inclusion of marginalized people

168 095 72 875

2016 204 Partner Digital community and Innovation in adult education and Basic Skills

438 135 48 230

2016 202 Partner Diagnosis and Actions for Young People Looking for a Better Future

327 580 54 210

2016 201 Partner Multilingual early childhood educa-tion and care for young refugees

165 197 30 565

2016 201 Coord. Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Managing language and social diver-sity in classrooms

307 554 55 990

2016 202 Partner Qualification assessments for refu-gee training and employment: Fast track with ECVET and Skills bank

320 938 22 406


2014 200 Partner Professional capacity dealing with diversity

431 335 41 065

2015 202 Partner Cloud and Internet Services with Open Source Software for SMEs

205 160 23 050

2016 201 Partner Digital Learning Across Boundaries 287 331 40 978

2016 203 Partner Sharing Learning from Practice to improve Patient Safety

431 996 57 552

Kongsberg Upper Secondary school

2015 219 Partner Europa en Guerra 164 375 26 625

2016 202 Partner SMART house through internet of things

56 950 17 725


2015 219 Partner Young people in Education and Stud-ies working in Europe

177 165 29 510

2015 219 Partner Heimat Europa 93 920 12 325

77



Granted to org.

Lunde primary and lower secondary school

2014 201 Partner Be Enterprising, Succeed Together 191 297 23 590

2016 219 Partner Future Inventors, New Discoveries 268 795 42 640

Mosjøen upper sec-ondary school

2014 202 Partner Old buildings, new technology 150 000 17 625

2014 202 Coord. Methods Adapted to the Computer-ised Learning Environment

164 415 35 095

2014 201 Partner RISE and SHINE 230 435 33 205

Nordic Institute for Training and Interna-tional Networking

2014 200 Coord. Value Adding Project 143 303 40 810

2015 201 Partner Pilietinės lyderystės ugdymas mokykloje

118 766 15 325

Nordic Network for Adult Learning

2014 204 Partner Action plan for validation and non-formal adult education

142 111 37 302

2015 204 Partner Let Europe Know about Adult Educa-tion

263 370 29 540

Nord-Trøndelag re-gional county

2014 202 Coord. International Nordic Entrepreneur-ship

141 105 16 945

2016 204 Partner Catch the BALL - Create a Dynamic Third Age

177 537 36 116


2014 203 Partner NAIP: Innovation in European Higher Music Education

246 623 33 136

2015 203 Partner Modernising European Higher Music Education through Improvisation

347 675 28 956

2015 203 Coord. ECMA - Next Step 398 789 85 153

2016 203 Partner Reflective Entrepreneurial Music Education – World class

234 135 38 010

78



Granted to org.

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

2014 203 Partner European Humanitarian Action Part-nership

347 730 11 941

2014 200 Partner Language Massive Open Online Courses

206 994 43 144

2014 201 Partner STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender balance

351 885 50 455

2014 202 Coord. Viability Innovation Scientific Crea-tivity oriented network for training and instruction

289 091 69 477

2014 203 Coord. Universal Design in Higher Education - Licence to Learn

138 650 44 480

2015 203 Partner New Culture in Higher Education: 402 229 107 042

2015 201 Partner

Strategies for Inclusion – Making high quality history and citizenship education more inclusive and acces-sible

357 330 36 370

2015 202 Coord. Leadership for Transition 360 422 73 458

2015 203 Coord. Professional Teacher Education through University Schools

219 670 37 740

2015 203 Coord. European Lean Enterprise Alliance Network

349 475 84 894

2016 203 Partner Intercultural learning in mathemat-ics and science initial teacher educa-tion

431 750 37 734

2016 201 Partner Heads Using Professional Learning Communities

238 587 42 142

2016 203 Partner School Adoption in Teacher Educa-tion

210 075 34 785

2016 202 Coord. Using Profiling and Publishing for the upping of Scientific Approaches

332 729 44 732

2016 203 Coord. Electronic International Forum for Teacher Educator Development

406 741 106 293

2016 203 Coord. Serious Games and Welfare Tech-nology

296 391 64 839

2016 202 Partner Learning to Innovate with Families 286 893 61 918

2014 200 Coord. Mobile enhanced tools and ap-proaches for innovative language learning and assessment

294 476 93 761

NTI-MMM Multilateral Monitoring and Man-agement

2014 200 Coord. Skills tube: Video recordings of skills performance linked to ECVET de-scriptions

299 551 51 767

2015 202 Partner European mobility network for voca-tional training in floristry

303 780 36 233

2015 202 Coord. Process VET from Chemi to Pharma 237 584 44 786

2016 202 Coord. Qualification assessments for refu-gee training and employment

320 938 52 745

Os upper secondary school

2015 219 Partner

Get infected to be protected. Developing e-learning materials and Prevention-Units about infectious diseases

132 010 21 115

2014 201 Partner Safe Internet For All 135 980 27 010

79



Granted to org.

Oslo voksen- opplæring

2016 204 Partner New talents for companies – Devel-oping the potentials of immigrants and refugees

345 275 35 825

2016 204 Coord. Improving Basic Skills and Method-ologies for the 21st Century

54 560 22 680

2014 204 Partner LIFE, ALL IN: Connecting formal and informal learning to enhance social inclusion

244 627 51 543

2014 204 Partner ICT in Daily Life and E-Learning in Adult Education

246 437 29 652

Rogaland School and Business Development Foundation

2014 204 Partner

LIGHTHOUSE Supporting lifelong learning and career paths for mi-grants by tailored counselling and recognition of prior learning to im-prove skills, employability and mo-bility

289 145 44 230

2014 200 Partner

EXPLORE – Innovative and successful outdoor training models for disad-vantaged young learners to improve their basic skills, self-awareness and social interaction

275 768 23 121

2014 202 Partner

Face Value: Optimising the psycho-social care for individuals with birth defects in Europe by implementing an innovative training method for staff in health care and NGO set-tings.

163 374 28 498

2015 204 Partner Teaching and Learning for Life in Europe

140 581 27 870

2015 202 Partner

IHEM: Improving the long-term out-comes in children with congenital anomalies by implementing an Inno-vative Health Educational Module for staff in health care and NGO settings.

268 502 29 915

Sandnes upper secondary school

2014 200 Partner Improving Language Learning 87 540 10 175

2015 219 Coord. Society and Architecture 124 336 36 817

Otta lower secondary school

2015 219 Coord. Sustainable development in local communities

77 400 20 890

2016 219 Partner Literary Heroes 110 400 21 755

Statped Heimdal, region midt (public body)

2014 200 Partner Sign Language Teachers in Europe: an Open Educational Resource

323 785 32 269

2014 200 Coord. Juvenil Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscino-sis and Education

214 765 81 915

2016 201 Partner

“ALL ABOARD” - Innovative actions and products to strengthen the competence of national expertise centres supporting inclusive educa-tion for pupils and students with special educational needs

133 863 30 479

80



Granted to org.

Stord upper secondary school

2014 202 Partner additive manufacturing, adding high tech in education

81 880 14 625

2016 219 Partner Load easy - drive clean 92 240 17 650

Sykkylven upper secondary school

2014 201 Coord. From Sunnmøre to Catalunia through Art Nouveau

58 290 32 145

2016 219 Coord. Crossroads with the future: digital technology and education

104 465 29 680

Trysil upper secondary school

2015 219 Coord. Norwegian Classic Dishes Meeting Italian Cuisine

78 480 35 840

2016 219 Coord. Job Shadowing into the European Future

126 575 30 455

University of Bergen

2014 200 Coord. Aramaic-Online Project 496 968 167 871

2014 200 Partner

Medical Peace Work 3 - Strengthen-ing Health Workers' Performance in Violence Prevention and Peace Building

290 100 17 016

2015 203 Partner

Development of innovative e-learning and teaching through stra-tegic partnerships in Global Health Education

371 717 86 708

2016 203 Partner Facing Europe in Crisis 449 597 47 497

University of Oslo

2014 203 Partner Establishing a Nordic Consortium for China Studies

156 288 33 695

2014 203 Partner Quality Audit Tool for School Leaders 207 571 36 185

2015 203 Partner Gender and Philosophy: Developing learning and teaching practices to include underrepresented groups

129 933 18 950

2015 203 Partner Nordic Particle Accelerator Program 327 725 27 535

2016 201 Partner Aiding Culturally Responsive As-sessment in Schools

294 422 81 117

2016 203 Coord.

Strategic Partnership to Promote Core Academic Values and Welcome Refugees and Threatened Academics to European Campuses

304 038 104 585

University of Stavanger

2014 203 Partner Collaboration and Innovation for Better, Personalized and IT-Supported Teaching

449 966 61 634

2014 200 Partner Space for Science – Implementing Innovations in Science Education

154 597 17 670

2014 200 Partner Improving Language Learning 87 540 7 720

2014 203 Coord. Development and Implementation of Interactive Mobile E-learning

425 430 208 785

2015 202 Partner LEAN: Training by doing and training on the go as effective approaches to lean manufacturing

298 800 48 385

2015 203 Partner Risk and Security Governance Stud-ies within Baltic – Nordic Academic Community of Practice

293 835 64 810

2015 201 Partner Enhancing the Education and Well-being of Disadvantaged Toddlers

343 960 78 128

81



Granted to org.

2016 202 Partner BIM4PLACEMENT European key competences in building and con-struction

248 045 53 920

2016 201 Partner Critical Reading and Awareness in Education

141 200 24 725

2016 203 Partner

Innovative Learning Approaches for Implementation of Lean Thinking to Enhance Office and Knowledge Work Productivity

218 895 44 215


2014 203 Partner Support Centres for Open education and MOOCS in different Regions of Europe 2020

277 662 37 867

2014 203 Partner Undergraduate curriculum and e-course on Evidence-Based Dentistry

167 503 28 429

2015 203 Partner Development of Innovative Academy on the basis of DT teaching

166 601 41 222

Val upper secondary school

2014 200 Coord. Increased Knowledge About Europe-an Aquaculture

90 180 34 940

2016 202 Coord. Sustainable use of water based re-sources

115 520 35 630

Vikeså primary and lower secondary school

2015 219 Partner Enhancing Cultural Literacy Through Innovative Practice and Skills in Eu-rope

99 251 14 197

2016 219 Partner Bullying free minds 175 890 25 760

VOX- Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning

2014 204 Partner Breaking Barriers - Embracing Litera-cy through Digital Media

413 000 21 094

2015 204 Partner Managing Money: Development of financial capability in adult educa-tion using technology

359 586 37 666

Vågen upper second-ary school

2016 219 Partner 3D in Education 143 690 15 811

2016 201 Partner Early warning - early reaction - in-crease performance in school quality

89 247 17 550

Source: SIU, the European Commission

+47 55 30 38 [email protected]

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