NOMA Master Scholarships 2010-2014

The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU) invites applications for grants to Master programmes to be conducted in English in the South. The call for applications is presented with reference to the NOMA Agreement between the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and SIU, signed on 27 April 2006, extended with an addendum to 2014 and the NOMA Programme Document.

A Master degree programme eligible for support under the NOMA programme is defined as full- time work-load over two academic years equivalent to 120 credits according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). One student cohort is defined as 4 semesters (2 years).

NB All programme activities must be finalised within 31.12.2014

For the period 2010 – 2014, applications for Master programmes are limited to the following categories:

a) Bilateral Master programmes for a period of either two years (one student cohort) or four years (two student cohorts). NOMA funding is limited to maximum NOK 2,25 million for one student cohort and maximum NOK 4,5 million for two student cohorts and includes all relevant supportive activities.

Bilateral Master programmes should be based on cooperation between two partner institutions, one in the South and one in Norway. One academic staff member at each partner institution called project coordinator has the responsibility for planning, implementation and reporting. Bilateral programmes may have apart from the above mentioned, informal or formal cooperation with other institutions, without specific NOMA funding for such cooperation activities.

b) Multilateral Master programmes for a period of either two years (one student cohort) or four years (two student cohorts). NOMA funding is limited to maximum NOK 3 million for one student cohort and maximum NOK 6 million for two student cohorts and includes all relevant supportive activities.

Multilateral Master programmes should have two main partner institutions, one outside Norway (IoN) and one in Norway (IiN) but may consist of additional partner institutions both outside Norway and in Norway ( it is a requirement for multilateral NOMA programmes to have minimum two partners outside Norway; one main partner and one additional partner). It may also have additional partner(s) in Norway.
The role of additional partners should be clearly stated in the application. Each partner institution must have an academic partner contact person, and must endorse the application before submission.

Apart from the general admission requirements for all students for NOMA Master programmes the following additional criteria apply for NOMA scholarships:

* Nationality (see criteria under eligible countries)
* Relevant professional experience of 2-3 years is desirable, but in order to increase the number of women participating in NOMA, the professional experience for women, who otherwise fulfil the academic requirement for NOMA scholarships, can be waived. The requirement for professional experience can be waived for both male and female applicants in countries where an academic field is not yet established
* Leave of absence from job in home country, if applicable (see above)
* Statement of purpose

The NOMA programme aims at equitable access and gender equality in all programme activities.

1. Aim and Objectives of the NOMA

The proposed Master programme should contribute to the realisation of the aim and objectives of the NOMA:

1.1 Aim

The overall aim of the NOMA is to contribute to the education of staff in all sectors (public and private sectors as well as civil society) in eligible countries, through building capacity at the Master level in higher education institutions (HEI) in the South.

1.2 Objectives

The objectives of the NOMA are:

* To support the development of Master programmes at HEI in the South through close collaboration with HEI in Norway in accordance with national needs in the South
* To achieve, in a longer term perspective, sustainable capacity of institutions in the South to provide the national work force with adequate qualifications within selected academic fields of study
* To stimulate South-South-North cooperation through support to the development of regional Master programmes
* To enhance gender equality in all programme activities
* To strengthen and further develop the competence of Norwegian HEI to integrate global as well as developmental perspectives in their professional work

2. Application and selection procedures

2.1 Creating an application

An application to the NOMA-programme should be planned and worked out jointly by the academic staff of the main cooperating institutions. The application should be submitted online to the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU) (NOMA secretariat) before 30 June 2009, GMT 1500 hrs.
The online procedure of applying for funding from NOMA is as follows:

1. Both project coordinators must create a personal account in SIU’s database. This is done at http://espresso.siu.no. (Persons that already have a username and password with SIU should not register again).
2. After being registered, one of the project coordinators may create a NOMA application.
3. The creator of the application then grants the other project coordinator access to the same application by adding her/him as “editor” to the application. NB the partner must be registered as a user in order to be granted editor access to the application.
4. The other will now have editor access to the same (joint) application from his/her personal login.

2.2 NOMA Institutional Contact Person- Reading Access

When selecting an institution in the application form, information about the institutions’ responsible central administrative unit of NOMA programmes (Office for International Relations or similar) will appear automatically if a NOMA institutional contact person previously has been appointed at the institution concerned. If new to the NOMA programme, the institution must appoint a NOMA institutional contact person. This person will be given reading access to the applications in progress from their institution. The appointed institutional contact person must register as a user at

http://espresso.siu.no

and then contact SIU at noma@siu.no marking the email with the subject “Institutional contact NOMA”, in order to be granted the access as institutional contact.

2.3 Additional Partners - Reading Access

The project coordinators may also grant reading access for network partners to their joint application.

The procedure for granting reading access follows the procedure for adding editors to the project.

2.4 Submission of the NOMA application

When submitting the application, separate Cover pages will be available for printing by the project coordinators (at IoN and IiN). This document should be printed and duly signed by the project coordinators and heads of the respective departments and the Vice Chancellor/ Rector/University Director or similar. The signed Cover page should be submitted to the NOMA Institutional contact person/NOMA coordinating unit at the institution within 6 July 2009.

The institutional contact person/NOMA coordinating unit should submit the signed cover pages to SIU together with the institutional assessment and prioritised list of applications within 28 August 2009.

2.5 External evaluation

All eligible applications are sent from SIU to two external evaluators – one from the South and one from the North, who will assess the academic quality of the applications.

2.6 Institutional assessment

After the external evaluators have submitted their evaluations, the institutions themselves are obliged to assess each application according to the “Guidelines and criteria for institutional assessment of applications to NOMA”. If more than one application is submitted from the institution, the institution should rank the applications they present to SIU. The ranking from the institutions in the South will be given double weight compared to the ranking from the institutions in the North.

The institutional assessment should be carried out by a “NOMA committee” if such exists, or another academic committee at the institution should be designated to this task. The external evaluations will be made available online for the institutions (institutional contact person) from 10 August 2009. The institutions will then make their assessment of relevance and feasibility of the proposed application(s).

The institutions must, based on these assessments prepare a prioritised list of the applications from their own institutions. The assessments and the prioritised list of applications and the cover pages should be presented to SIU within 28 August 2009.
Details about the procedures for institutional assessment will be provided to the relevant institutions by SIU at the end of July 2009.

2.7 Decision on allocation of NOMA funding

The NOMA Programme Board will make the final selection of the projects to be supported in October 2009.

3. Terms and conditions for the applications

1. One HEI outside Norway and one Norwegian HEI will be the two main contract partners under the Master programmes supported by NOMA. The two main contract partners may collaborate in development and implementation of the proposed programmes with relevant public and private organisations in their respective countries.
2. The applying institutions must already have identified each other as potential partners for a cooperation project.
3. Funding will be given to new Master programmes that have not received prior financial support from the Norad Fellowship Programme (2001-2005) or NOMA Master Programme 2006 and 2007. Only new projects will be considered for financial support under this Call. The mere extension of an existing NOMA Master programme to new countries or recruitment of new regional students will not qualify for support. Previous relevant experience from an existing NOMA programme may be used to facilitate the preparation of a new project, however, this new Master programme should involve a new main partner outside Norway and the development of a curriculum catering to the specific needs of the partner concerned.
4. The maximum budget for the proposed Master programmes is NOK 4,5 million for bilateral programmes and NOK 6 million for multilateral programmes (please refer to the Introduction chapter for further details on the different categories).

3.1 Basic principles of cooperation and the role of the institutions in NOMA

The NOMA cooperation works according to a decentralised model, i.e. cooperation projects are initiated, planned, implemented and reported in cooperation between project coordinators/academic partner contact person at departmental level at the partner institutions.

The collaboration should be based on the principle of equality between the partners and characterised by transparency at all levels.

Institutions applying for support from NOMA need to appoint one administrative contact person at institutional level (NOMA Institutional Contact Person) to coordinate the institution’s handling of the application procedure. Preferably the NOMA institutional contact person should be located centrally in the institutions organisation e.g. Head of International Department or equivalent position. It is not recommended to appoint this function to a Vice Chancellor or Rector.

Institutions with several NOMA projects may establish a “NOMA coordinating unit” as well, in order to coordinate the day to day handling of the NOMA cooperation, reporting procedures and the follow-up of financial issues and accounting.

3.2 What a joint application for Master programmes must include

* A plan for how the proposed Master programmes can contribute to the realisation of the aim and objectives of the NOMA
* A plan for the achievement of academic goals
* A budget for the project
* CV’s of the academic coordinators, in the South and in Norway
* Information about existing contacts/partners, and prior relevant international experience at the institutions
* A description of relevant national needs in the selected academic field in the South that will be addressed by the Master programme
* A statement of commitment to the Master programme by the leadership of the respective HEI (in the form of signed Cover pages from both North and South)
* A strategy for ensuring sustainability in a longer term perspective
* Indicators of success both qualitative and quantitative, for evaluating the Master programme

3.3 Projects stimulating regional cooperation

The establishment of Master programmes that stimulate regional cooperation in the South will be encouraged. A country, other than those listed in para 3.4. point 1 and 2 a), may be selected for academic reasons as location for a regional project. In that case it will be considered essential that partner institutions in a South-South context, within the project period, are enabled to provide Master programmes to meet their own national needs for capacity-building.

3.5 Eligible institutions

HEI in the South from countries listed under geographical criteria that are recognised /accredited by the national authorities in the country where they have their campus, and have appropriate systems for accounting and audit and can provide plans for monitoring and reporting according to the NOMA requirements, are eligible.

Norwegian institutions who are members of the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR) in Norway and have accredited Master programmes through The Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT), are eligible.

The main contract partners, one in Norway and one outside Norway, shall collaborate in the development and implementation of the proposed programmes with relevant public and private organisations in their respective countries.

3.6 Eligible academic fields

The following are the eligible academic fields for NOMA for the programme period:

* Education
* Environment, economic development and trade
* Gender
* Good governance, democratic development, human rights and migration
* Health
* HIV/AIDS
* Oil and energy
* Peace and Conflict resolution

The Master programmes may be offered with selected modules in the South and/or in Norway. The main focus of the programme should be in the South. Norwegian students should be encouraged to enrol in course modules in the South as well as in Norway as a part of their degree programme.

3.7 Student Admission process

The recruitment process of Master students should be open and transparent. The recruitment should be done in cooperation with relevant bodies at the respective institutions. The NOMA programme aims at equitable access and gender equality in all programme activities.

Student applications for Master programmes should be forwarded directly to the institution offering the master programme.

The HEIs, both in the Norway and outside Norway, are responsible for keeping records of student intake for reporting purposes to SIU.

3.8 Disbursement of funds

All project funds will be transferred from SIU to the Norwegian main partner institution. Disbursement of funds to project activities in the South should be made by the Norwegian main partner institution according to annual budgets.

The partner institution in the South shall report on disbursed project finances annually to the Norwegian main partner institution while the Norwegian main partner institution is responsible for reporting of the total project finances to SIU.

3.9 Accounting and audit

HEI in Norway and in the South that receive funds from NOMA are instructed to ensure that appropriate accounting systems are implemented, and that accounting is done according to generally accepted accounting principles. Audit should be carried out in accordance with international standards.

Each institution is accountable for funds received from the NOMA programme.

4. Timetable for the NOMA application process

Timetable for the application process NOMA Master Programmes 2010-2014, will be as follows:
Activity Responsible Deadline
Call for applications NOMA Master Programmes 2010-2014 SIU 24 November 2009
Submission of joint online NOMA applications Project coordinators 30 June 2009
Signed Cover page submitted from project coordinator to institutional contact person Project coordinators 6 July 2009
Details about the procedures for institutional assessment to the relevant institutions SIU Ultimo July 2009
Evaluation of applications by external evaluators SIU 6 July 2009
Evaluation by external evaluators available to institutions SIU 10 August 2009
Submission of institutional assessments, a prioritised list of applications from the institution as well as signed Cover page VC/Rector/University Director or similar/NOMA coordinating unit or similar 28 August 2009
Award of support funds for NOMA Master Programmes 2010-2014 NOMA Programme Board October 2009