Approval of Education - Exchange

Your period of study mobility must be included in your Norwegian degree, and approval of the study mobility is thus necessary to avoid being delayed in your studies.

Regardless of whether you are traveling on one of our exchange agreements or on your own, you must have the period of study mobility approved in order for them to be incorporated into a degree at NMBU. We distinguish between pre-approval and final approval

Lånekassen needs pre-approval in order to grant support for period of study mobility.

• Exchange through NMBU

  You must apply for an exchange, as well as be nominated to a university, prior to applying for pre-approval for exchange studies abroad. 

• Exchange outside NMBUs agreement

  If you are applying for studies outside of NMBU's exchange agreements, it is recommended that you get confirmed in advance whether the university is accredited. You must plan for participating in classes abroad and take exams in connection with your study mobility.
  
  If you apply outside NMBU's exchange agreements, your stay must be registered in the student system (FS) before you apply for prior approval. You do this by sending a copy of the admission letter to utveksling@nmbu.no

• Application for pre-approval

  You apply for pre-approval to your faculty through the designated form. The amount of documentation that needs to be attached when you apply for pre-approval varies, so ask the study advisor at your faculty about what they need.

  Examples of documentation that might be needed: 

  • study plan with course description and overview of teaching and examination form
  • syllabus list and general information about the university you want to study at

  Missing documentation can lead to longer processing time.

  A pre-approval is your proof that your period of study mobility will be approved as part of your NMBU degree when you return.

• Main rule for approval

  • It is a prerequisite that the studies do not overlap with previous topics/courses
  • Exams taken at publicly approved higher education institutions abroad are approved according to the time-for-time principle, i.e. that one year of full-time studies at university level abroad must correspond to one year of studies at NMBU (60 credits). Please note that the Lånekassen can only provide support for full-time studies. Also note that full-time studies means nominal study time ("full credit load"). Nominal study time for one semester is calculated by calculating how many credits (credits, units, kréditos, etc.) are required to obtain a degree, then dividing by the number of semesters the degree is standard for. At some universities abroad, you are considered a full-time student even if you do not take a full credit load. If you take less credits than the norm, you will usually get correspondingly fewer credits approved at NMBU.
  • If you go on exchange to the USA, Latin America, or a number of countries in Asia and Africa, courses at first-year level are normally not approved. National rules for achieving general study competence mean that the first year of higher education from these countries is not initially approved as higher education in Norway.

  
  Remember to inform your study advisor if you end up taking other courses than what you have been pre-approved for! You must then apply again for pre-approval for newly chosen courses/subjects.

• Final approval: when you have finished your studies abroad

  
  You apply for final approval when you return from your study mobility. The approval is also necessary to have parts of the student loan converted into grants. Remember that the official transcripts from the host university must be uploaded in the application.

• Forms - application of exchange and approval

  • Application for Exchange 
  • Pre-approval of Coursework to be Taken During Studies Abroad
  • Application for Approval of External Courses/Coursework