Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education (SFU)

The Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education is a prestigious scheme that gives Norway’s leading educational communities the resources to further develop their programmes and practises. The scheme is a targeted and long-term effort to stimulate the development of teaching practises and new approaches to learning in higher education – both at bachelor’s and master’s degree level.

Only world leading educational communities are awarded the status after comprehensive assessment. The status is awarded for five years at the time with the possibility to renew it for another five years after a midterm evaluation.

The centres are given funding to develop excellent R&D-based education within their field of experience. Each centre set goals with the intention to transform their discipline at local, institutional, national and international levels. The scheme strengthens the knowledge base for quality enhancement in higher education and support the development of new forms of student involvement and partnership.

The centres are responsible for sharing knowledge and educational practices at their own institution and beyond. By disseminating results and best practices the centres are expected to have an impact far beyond their funding period. 

Academic communities awarded status

Midterm evaluation

The Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education receive the initial grant for a period of five years with the possibility to renew their status for an additional five years after a midterm evaluation. The midterm evaluation is carried out towards the end of their first funding period.

The midterm evaluation is carried out by an expert panel consisting of professionals with expertise in the field of teaching and education in higher education, education management, as well as expertise in the respective centres' subject areas.

You may read more about the 2020 panel and their experience here.

The basis for the midterm evaluation is: 

• The centre’s self-evaluation of the first funding period 
• The centre plan for the second funding period 
• The centre’s last annual report 
• The relevant call for proposals, the centre’s original application for centre status and the feedback on this application 
• Report from the last site visit
• Statement from host and partner institutions about added value of the centre 
• Information gathered through meetings with institutional leadership, centre management, students, and teachers 
• Statement from stakeholders

For applicants

Each year the quality of the submitted proposals increase and it is expected that this trend will continue. Applicants to the scheme is therefore encouraged to start the application process early and familiarise themselves with previous call for proposals and particularly the expert panel’s feedback to the finalists. 

The expert panel which that evaluated the 2019 call for proposal highlighted two areas in which the applicant’s proposal could have been stronger: the proposed framework for results and evaluation and planes for dissemination. The panel also indicated that the applicants could benefited from using the expertise of the already established Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education as a “critical friend”. 

Important documents for new applicants

The expert panel’s general feedback to the seven finalists 2019. 

Applications from the four finalists who were awarded status in 2019, including the expert panel’s individual feedback to their proposals:

• CELL - Centre on Experimental Legal Learning, University of Oslo 
• COAST - Center of Excellence in Maritime Simulator Training and Assessment, University of South-Eastern Norway 
• iEarth – Centre for Integrated Earth System Science Education, University of Bergen 
• SHE – Centre for Sustainable Health Care Education, University of Oslo 

Applications from the three finalists who were not awarded status in 2019, including the expert panel’s individual feedback to their proposals:

• IPEX – Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education, UiT The Artic University of Norway 
• OAS-HIS – Oslo Academy for Studies in International History, University of Oslo 
• SIMeLEARN – Centre of Excellent Simulation and eLearning, University of Stavanger 

Get in touch

Please contact us on sfu@diku.no 

This is the team working on the scheme in Diku:

• Anja Olsen Moberg, program coordinator 
• Ida Iselin Eriksson
• Linda Lien
• Marit Ubbe 
• Torstein Nielsen Hole 
• Heidi Skålevik, communication 
• Lene Kristin Hansen, finance

Publications

På vei mot det fremste - 2016
Developing Educational Excellence in Higher Education - 2019

History

Get a brief overview of the history of the scheme.