Evaluation of Nordplus: Innovation and profiling keys to future success

Nordplus has been evaluated by NIFU (Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education) at the assignment of Nordic Council of Ministers. The evaluation covers the years 2008–2010 and is based on 80 interviews of both administrators and users from all participating countries and autonomous territories. It points out that Nordplus is highly appreciated and worth developing further.

Higher Education is, as to the evaluation report, the largest, best-known and most established sub-programme of Nordplus. The interest in the program is great and, thus, the competition for grants is hard. Even though the number of project applications has increased during the last few years, 70 % of the budget is still granted for mobility. The interviewed networks are especially grateful for the opportunity to express mobility whose popularity has increased, while the regular mobility has decreased.

Since 2008, also the Baltic countries participate in Nordplus. The inclusion of the Baltic countries has been perceived as positive, as it turns out of the evaluation. Baltic higher education institutions are involved in over half the applications and their participation is increasing.

As it comes to the future of the programme, opinions are divided. Some argue that Nordplus has lost the competition against the EU's Lifelong Learning Programmes due to its scarcer resources, while others perceive the programme as an easily accessible "entrance ticket" to internationalisation thanks to its non-bureaucratic procedures and flexible solutions, such as express mobility. According to the evaluation, Nordplus is still often seen as a pure mobility programme, and some find that the focus on mobility should be preserved. Others consider mobility to be "yesterday's internationalisation" and call for new thinking and innovative projects. The evaluation also reveals that many networks apply for mobility support rather by habit than by a genuine desire to promote internationalisation.

Nordic Council of Ministers has opted for to conserve the programme structure but to follow the guidelines of the evaluation report in developing Higher Education programme. This involves stronger prioritisation of innovative projects and more efficient dissemination of their results. The programme will also reinforce its profile as complementary to the LLP programmes and promote its benefits, e.g. express mobility. These development goals will be considered as the preparations for the programme period 2012–2016 begin in autumn 2011.

The evaluation report is available at norden.org