Group work 1

Developing a strategy for SANORD with short-term and long-term objectives

The Southern African-Nordic Centre is currently a partnership of 37 research-led higher education institutions from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and institutions in Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 2009 the members adopted an Action Plan which is annually updated by the SANORD Central Office (SCO) and the members. This action plan is used to gauge the progress of the SCO and our SANORD members in the current academic year. It primarily addresses the action by the SCO in the current year and should promote the goals in the SANORD Mission statement of 2007.

The following goals form the cornerstone of the SANORD centre:

• To bring together the leadership of Nordic and Southern African institutions of higher education and research for discussion, planning and joint endeavours.
• To provide opportunities for academics to meet around issues relevant to the mission.
• To promote and assist with the development of strategic cooperation projects.
• To offer relevant resources and information services, including virtual and physical meeting places, to facilitate and stimulate cooperation.
• To promote cultural exchanges that strengthen academic life.
• To build relevant relationships with the donor community, commerce, industry and the media.

We must bear in mind that SANORD is a low-budget organisation which depends on the actions by its members and the synergies between them. The actions to be performed by our SANORD members should be emphasised. The SCO, with reference to the action plan, is responsible for liaising with members, stimulating events, maintaining the portal and other work requested by the Board. The Action Plan seeks to give direction to the work by the SCO and to identify expected action by SANORD members.

However, the vision to expand the network from Southern Africa to Sub-Saharan Africa poses new opportunities and challenges. Given the experiences with SANORD till date, this working group should attempt to describe these opportunities and challenges. It should provide its reflections on concepts such as ‘strategic’ and ‘relevant’ and consider whether the above expansion should be accompanied by changes in SANORD’s focus, goals and objectives, keeping both short-term and long-term perspectives in mind.

Group work 2

Developing a plan for ERASMUS-collaboration among SANORD members

ERASMUS FOR ALL is the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport proposed by the European Commission on 23 November 2011. The proposal is now under discussion by the Council (27 Member States) and the European Parliament who will take the final decision.

Therefore, the future modalities for ERASMUS collaboration between European (Nordic) and African countries are not yet clear. On the basis of the presentation on ERASMUS FOR ALL delivered by an EU representative on Day 1, as well as any other information concerning the programme that is available during the Symposium, this group work will initiate a planning process that aims at facilitating ERASMUS collaboration among SANORD partners.

The work of the group will continue after the Aarhus Symposium. The objective will be to describe and recommend concrete mechanisms for facilitation and enhancement of ERASMUS collaboration and other funding mechanisms that the working group may wish to include in its work. The outcome will be presented at the SANORD conference in Malawi in 2013.