Erasmus+
Oslo New University College was awarded the Erasmus+ Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) in 2022.
Erasmus+ Policy Statement
Participation in Erasmus+
Oslo New University College (ONUC), “Oslo Nye Høyskole” in Norwegian, is a small, private institution offering accredited higher education courses at the bachelor’s and master’s level within four fields: Health Studies, International Relations and Political Science, Psychology, and Business Administration. Over 60% of our students study online, with the remainder studying at our campus in central Oslo.
ONUC acknowledges that the Erasmus+ program is the largest program for educational cooperation in the world, and to participate in the program would open many doors for ONUC’s students and staff. It would represent a central and strategic part of how ONUC wants to grow and develop during the period.
For the 2021-2027 program period, ONUC aims to participate in the following activities:
- Key Action 1 (KA1)
- Key Action 2 (KA2)
- Jean Monnet Actions
Key Action 1
International mobility is an essential part of ONUC’s internationalization strategy. ONUC has a long-term goal of increasing student and staff participation in Global and European mobility programs through Key Action 1 as a means of increasing activity, quality, and relevance in our academic programs and for our students and staff. ONUCs goal is to participate in European mobility programs for Individual Mobility (KA131), as well as Global Mobility programs (KA171). As ONUC has long traditions of offering online degrees we are particularly excited to explore opportunities within the area of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) as well.
Key Action 2
ONUC has a long tradition of working with HEI’s abroad, and we currently have several partnerships with institutions outside the EU. We would like to build on these experiences and develop new European partnerships and further develop existing partnerships we have outside the EU. We would also like to investigate the opportunities to cooperate with external partners other than HEI’s establishing projects to solve real life problems, which in turn would increase the quality and relevancy of our own research activities and educational programs.
Jean Monnet Actions
ONUC would also like to explore opportunities within Jean Monnet program. The college offers courses in political science, peace and conflict studies as well as international studies, and our academic staff is eager to explore possibilities to develop a broader European focus within the department and courses offered.
Strategy, objectives and impact
Oslo New University College bases its organization and activities on the following core values:
- Community
- Reliability
- Quality
These values mean that we continuously strive to maintain and further develop quality and relevance in our programs, and an inclusive culture of community where we attempt to maintain reciprocal contact between students, employees and society at large. As a small college with a tight knit community including the individual student and the staff, we have a culture of quality characterized by dialogue and trust.
Our long-term strategy is one of growth through continually seeking out areas of improvement and development in all facets at the College, especially by using digitalization as a key tool. The College has its own digitalization strategy and a strategy for internationalization as well.
Through our strategic strength within the area of online studies, we see we are well positioned to contribute to sustainability and green practices in an environmental sense. In addition, we acknowledge how our digital practices and experience in providing online courses over the last 12 years helps to promote the inclusion of certain disadvantaged student and staff populations and diversity within these groups, thus leading to more active participation in society now and in the future.
Through our participation in Erasmus+, the College hopes that the program will be a catalyst for growth, change and development within our own international activities, benefitting students, staff, our academic programs and our research activities. The College hopes additionally that activities within the Erasmus+ program will promote the values and initiatives that lie within the Educational Area concept, particularly by opening opportunities through online education and Blended Intensive Programs at ONUC.
Key Action 1
All our bachelor’s degrees have mobility options for outgoing student mobility – both for our campus and online students. Our students are already able to study abroad using ONUC’s existing agreements, and we have structures to encourage and support students during and after their time abroad. Through Erasmus+ we aim to increase participation in mobility programs and open up new geographical areas for our students. We also mean that we are well positioned to look at the opportunities for mobility through Blended Intensive Programs.
To stimulate mobility among those students who are unable to travel, we already have gained experience of blended/online mobility. We applaud the Erasmus+ focus on digitalization, sustainability and green practices and are looking forward to exploring more opportunities for this – especially for our online students. We see this as an excellent measure to encourage the inclusion of certain student groups who are prevented from travelling for whatever reason by offering them digital options.
Additionally, we would like to use the opportunities within KA1 to welcome international students on mobility programs to our college with the goal of creating an open and multicultural campus with classroom discussions that include different perspectives and voices. Currently, we welcome international students on a study abroad semester each autumn. This is a long-standing opportunity which has allowed primarily US and British students to come to our Oslo campus each year. We have well-tried administrative and academic procedures in place to welcome and support the incoming students and promote the colleges which send them to us. We are also continuously working to offer more courses in English broadening options within current programs, and we have a goal to offer English taught courses in both Business Administration and Psychology well before 2027, which will be open for incoming mobility students. A number of these courses will be available fully online too.
Participation in Erasmus+ represents an opportunity to increase ONUC’s chances to reach out with study abroad opportunities for a wider audience and provide our campus students with a larger international experience, by studying side by side with more international students on our Oslo campus.
During the Erasmus+ program period, we hope to also be able to stimulate staff mobility within teaching and training as a means of strengthening the international relevancy of our college’s work in the future.
Within the area of traineeships, again, all our bachelor’s degrees have options to undertake up to one semester of traineeship/internship. Currently we have international traineeship options for several of our degrees and have procedures in place to promote and support these opportunities. Digital traineeships at international organizations have been undertaken by our students previously, and we hope to build more such blended options in the future too. Through Erasmus+ ONUC aim to develop more opportunities and destinations for our students.
Key Action 2 and Jean Monnet
ONUC hopes to reach our strategic goals in our internationalization strategy by exploiting the opportunities for cooperation within the Key Action 2 program. Academic staff and the international office already work to maintain our current portfolio of cooperation efforts and trusts that Erasmus+ will open more opportunities to grow, develop and strengthen new partnerships with HEIs abroad and take part in other partnership activities with other organizations that will be beneficial to our students and staff, our research, and international activities.
Also, through Erasmus+ we hope to develop ONUC’s strategic strength within the area of online studies. Our flexible programs allow students to switch between being online and on-campus. Thus, by using our long experience offering flexible and online studies, we would like to explore the possibilities to develop blended mobility programs and partnerships with other HEIs who have similar strengths.
ONUC’s Department of International Relations and Political Science has a strong, current, international academic environment for students and staff. Their strategic aim is to use Erasmus+ and the Jean Monnet Actions to particularly explore opportunities to develop their degree programs within Political Science and International Studies so that European Studies is incorporated into the curriculum and program design.
Indicators
Key Action 1
Key Action 1 activities will be included into our system for systematic quality assurance and be measured and monitored within this. ONUC’s aim is to gradually increase numbers of students and staff participating in mobility activities for studies and traineeships during the program period, both through travel abroad, incoming students and staff to the Oslo campus, and through blended mobility options using digital technology.
The evaluation of student mobility and student satisfactory will be carried out in the form of a short survey from all the students who have completed a mobility program. We also monitor academic results. For feedback on staff mobility, we will implement personal interviews.
Key Action 2 and Jean Monnet
Key Action 2 and Jean Monnet activities will also be included into our system for systematic quality assurance and be measured and monitored within this.
Our aim with Key Action 2 is to proactively investigate entering 1-2 new partnerships during the program period, most probably within the areas of partnerships for cooperation and innovation. Our ambition with Jean Monnet is to develop Jean Monnet modules, and to explore the possibility to develop Jean Monnet Chairs.