NOM Minutes August 2000

NOM meeting 28.8.2000 in Stockholm

1. Opening of the meeting

Jacob Henricson opened the meeting.

2. Previous minutes

The minutes stated that there would be a conference concerning NORDPLUS. This was not the case. Instead there are plans on deciding to have a conference concerning NORDPLUS.

The previous minutes where adopted. 

3. The agenda

An evaluation of the meeting was added as a sub paragraph of 13.

There was doubt about whether or not a policy paper should be created but a new paragraph, "#15 policy paper" was added.

3.5 election of chair

Jacob Henricson was officially elected as chairperson of the meeting

4. Report and update

Nordplus (DFS) Concerning Nordplus. There hasn’t bean much activity since the last NOM.

Hög Ut (DFS) the routine of applying has been changed. One of the issues that Hög Ut is handling is the fact that there is an asymmetry in student’s mobility. Some Nordic countries seam to attract more students from the Nordic region than other Nordic countries. 

5. Common educational market

A discussion concerning the remarks about the comment that the NOM should elect responsible persons where raised (see the original agenda). The meaning of NOM was that NOM always elect responsible persons. The NOM decided that in the future there should be no remarks about this in the agenda.

6. Information from every member and update of the NOM file

DSF structure has changed since the last NOM. This has bean taking some time. There seam to be some problems with the educational ministry keeping information to them selves.

LMS is still considering having only one NUS in Denmark.

SAMOK is working with the polytechnic reform in Finland. There are some problems with student cards. SAMOK has also hired a social affair officer.

SYL is also working with the polytechnic reform. The demonstration held by the Finnish student unions concerning the fundings for higher education is now being followed up. Preparation for the Prague 2001 workgroup of ESIB is going on.

SOI There has been a lot of problem with loans for students in Iceland. The universities in Iceland are now charging fees for students There has recently been a change in the law about the universities and the work with going through the new law has bean a great task.

Norway: Both the organisations are preparing an international student conference together. The council of the universities will follow up with another conference for teachers and students. As in Denmark the discussion about whether or not Norway should have only one national student organisation is going on.

SFS is having a conference at the World Expo in Hanover concerning student movement and democracy. SFS is making progress in student participation concerning the bologna declaration. On the national level SFS is having a discussion about the future organisation and strategy of SFS, student democracy and the issue of minorities in higher education.

7. Update for ESIB

The next board meeting:

Constitutional comity went through the constitution and there will be a proposal coming from the comity and from some NUS’s concerning the constitution. There will be discussions and elections of a new EC and chairperson of ESIB.

The Paris conference:

All the questions concerning the conference should be directed to Remi directly. There are still some possibilities to influence the direction of the conference and the idea of the student council.

8. Election of organisation to represent NOM towards the Nordic Council of ministers

Jacob from SFS raises the question of the fact that the DSF has been the representative for some time. The reason for this, as spoken by the DSF, is that they are located in Denmark so they easily can discuss different issues with the administration of the Nordic Council of ministers.

They can only be informed of issues that the ministers are agreeing that the students should know.

Taru from SAMOK raises the question that it would be a good idea to have different NUS’s that can be the representative. The DSF welcomes such a proposition since it could be a good idea to share the workload of the representation. Bo from DSF raises the suggestion that there could be one organisation that is the official representative and the workload could be shared and then the question of the official organisation should be raised again. Kathrin from SFS proposes that the SFS should be official representative towards the Nordic council of ministers. Taru, SAMOK states that the official representative has a responsibility to spread the information to all of the NUS’s in NOM.

After a short break NOM agreed that SFS should be the official representative towards the Nordic council of ministers. At the first meeting there should be one representative from SFS and one from DSF. The information from the Nordic council of ministers should be spread through out the whole of NOM.

9. Election of the theme for next seminar

The themes for the next meeting will be "quality assurance" and "working or study environment".

10. Election of host-organisation for the next seminar

STL was elected as the host of the next meeting

11. Election of co-ordinator

Inga-Marie, STL and Jacob Henricson, SFS were elected as the co-ordinators for the following meeting. To reach the co-ordinator of the next meeting use the following e-mail addresses: stl@studenthuset.no jacob.henricson@sfs.se

12. Next agenda and date for the next meeting

1. The Norwegians send an agenda to everybody.
2. The NOM members respond with comments.
3. A final agenda is sent out by the Norwegians

The date for the next meeting is set to the 2nd to the 4th of March 2001.

13. Any other business

Conference of Nordic council of ministers, Copenhagen (SFS)

Every country is allowed to send 10 representatives of witch 2 should be below 25 years of age. The Swedish ministry of education has chosen to send the two young representatives from there staff. In Denmark the situation is similar. The Danish ministry is of the opinion that this is not a question for the student organisations. Jacob (SFS) encourages every one to try to change the opinion of their ministry and maybe, in the future, the ministry will turn directly to the NUS’s for their participation.

How do we develop our participation in the Nordic council of ministers (SFS)
Report on foreign students in Sweden (SFS)

The Swedish government is discussing if the Swedish universities should be allowed to use a fee-system for students coming from non-EU countries. The same kind of development is taking place in Denmark. The DSF has the opinion that the sender should pay for the exchange student. LMS has the same stand point of view. SYL is of the idea that someone should pay.

Co-operation with the Baltic countries NUS’s

According to the statues of NOM the Baltic NUS’s can not become members of NOM. The structure of NOM will not change at this point for the time being. However NOM is interested in co-operation with the Baltic NUS’s. The means of this co-operation is however not an easy question. It is not clear if co-operation with BOM or directly with the different NUS’s is the best way. An invitation for the next NOM seminar should be sent out. The invitation will be sent to the Estonian NUS (for two participants) and ask the Lithuanian and the Latvian NUS’s if they want to get a separate invitation (two participants each) or an invitation through BOM (for four participants).

14. Evaluation

It is clear that the meaning of NOM must be dealt with. Is the idea of making a policy paper a good thing to do or should NOM do something else? The language of the lectures should be in English since everybody does not understand Swedish.

15. Policy paper

Jacob will send a summary to all the members of NOM, but no policy paper will be made at this stage.

16. Closing of meeting

The chairperson Jacob Henricson thanked the participants and closed the meeting.