Hearing regarding proposed changes to the university and university college act. Source (in Norwegian). The hearing deadline is the 16th of December 2015.
Diploma bank
Ministry of Education and Research (KD) wants to establish a database of diplomas. The purpose behind this database is for individuals to more easily share their results and achievements to a potential employer, or other who might have need for them. This way the recipients can trust that the merits are correct.
The database, called vitnemålsbanken (diploma bank), is supposed to contain a minimum of information necessary for the service to function. The information collected from the database should, as far as possible, be retrieved from the original datasource, i.e. the different education institutions. In effect this means that diplomas will not be stored in the diploma bank, but serve only as a system to retrieve them. The diploma bank will only contain information pertaining to which institutions/sources that contain the results for which individuals, i.e. you birth-number connected to an ID-code pointing to a educational institution’s database.
Possibilities for a person to reserve against registration in the national diploma bank has been discussed. Since it is up to each individual to control disclosure of the results, and because the merits are conveyed through the diploma bank at the subject’s initiative, the ministry deem there to be no need for a reservation system.
Appeal system for SIUs grants
Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU) is a national competence- and information centre established to coordinate and promote international education throughout the whole education. SIU is a governmental body subject under the administration of KD. As of now, there are no specific regulations regarding SIU’s operations.
The proposed changes introduces specific regulations for SIU. Roughly translated they are
New § 5-4 shall read:
§ 5-4 Appeal system for SIU
(1) SIU is an national competence- and information centre which shall work to coordinate and promote international educational cooperation through the whole education. SIU is an administrative subject under KD.
(2) SIU makes decisions regarding funds within announced applications. The appeal court is the contracting entity which SIU performs the task for. The appeal court may not overrule SIU’s technical assessment of the facts regarding distribution of funds. The ministry may create regulations pertaining to the procedures and legal remedies for this provision.
NOKUT’s model for accreditation and supervision
NOKUT (the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education) is an independent expert body under the Ministry of Education and Research (KD). The proposed changes aim to state more clearly NOKUT’s responsibility to oversee the educational institutions’ overall quality.
Appeals regarding preliminary examinations
KD suggests the possibility to decrease the appeal period from three weeks to one week for preliminary examinations in order to avoid a delayed start in studies. This appears to be a change of little to no consequence for SiN.