University of Bergen

Just like the city of Bergen, the University of Bergen (UiB) has had an international outlook since its foundation, and it is strongly committed to international collaboration in education. Judged by the proportion of incoming and outgoing international students, the University of Bergen is the most international university in Norway. The University of Bergen has many bilateral collaboration agreements with renowned universities around the world. UiB is a member of several European university networks, including the Coimbra Group and the Utrecht network. The university participates in various programmes for the internationalisation of higher education, including the Quota Programme, the Erasmus Programme, Erasmus Mundus, the Nordplus and Nordlys networks and the NOMA programme. The academic profile of the University of Bergen has two major focuses. One is marine research – the city of Bergen is considered to be one of the largest marine science centres in Northern Europe. The other is global development research, and the university has earned a distinguished reputation both in Norway and abroad for its excellent, result-driven collaboration on research and education with universities in developing countries. The University of Bergen has been actively involved in the initiatives of the European Union, and has been successful in relation to the EU’s higher education programmes. Institutional cooperation with institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America is also important. The University of Bergen is one of three Norwegian universities accredited by the US Department of Education. That means that, for more than twenty years now, it has been possible for American students wishing to study at the University of Bergen to apply for financial support from the American student loan programme (FFELP) under the US Department of Education. UiB’s accreditation entails regular thorough evaluations of its quality systems by external evaluators.