The Nordic Council of Ministers has just agreed to invite for a new round of tenders for its successful Nordic Master Program in 2009.

"Critical mass is essential in the area of research and education, and the Nordic Master Program is an obvious way to create synergy between degree courses in the Nordic countries," said Denmark’s Minister of Science, Helge Sander.

A Nordic Master Program (NMP) is put together with courses from a minimum of three Nordic institutions of higher education, which draw on the best that the Nordic universities have to offer.

In a time when investments and business development is dependent on knowledge, it is of crucial importance to attract and retain highly educated workers.

The global educational market is competing more and more for the smart guys and the Nordic countries must assert themselves as a joint area for higher education, if they want to be in the race.

The Nordic Master Program is one of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ answers to these challenges.

"Nordic Masters are a good start and the next step is an even broader partnership on joint degrees in the Nordic region," stated the Norwegian Minister of Research, Tora Aasland.

The first round for tenders for NMP took place in 2007. This led to applications from 41 educational consortiums, of which more than half were of such quality that they met the high standards required for a Nordic Master.

Six programmes were chosen:

• Nordic Master in Gerontology

• Nordic Master in Plant Pathology

• Nordic Master in the Religious Roots of Europe

• Nordic Master in Marine Ecosystems and Climate

• Nordic Master in Innovative Sustainable Energy Engineering

• Nordic Master in Innovative Information and Communication Technologies

The chosen institutes of higher education were allocated up to DKK 1 million for the development of their respective programmes.

The budget and conditions for the Nordic Master Program 2009 will be announced in the spring 2009.

Other initiatives started up by the Nordic Council of Ministers to create a joint area for higher education include efforts to profile the Nordic region as an attractive place to study, and a study on commercialism and entrepreneurship at the Nordic institutes of higher education.

For more information:
Michael Funch
mifu@norden.org
+45 21 71 71 43

Christian Möller
chm@norden.org
+45 33 96 03 54

or: http://www.norden.org/utdanning/sk/index.asp?lang=6

Photo: Johannes Jansson/norden.org