The joint Barents Council Working Group on Higher Education and Research has since the establishment of the Barents cooperation in 1993 been pushing for increased cross-border contacts between the universities.
At a November meeting in the group, the representatives from the universities in Tromsø, Bodø, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Petrozavodsk stressed the necessity of the group as an instrument for further academic cooperation in the region. It was also agreed that the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk should take over the chair of the group from Petrozavodsk State University.
Today, Russians are the larges group of foreign students in Norway, and a growing number of Norwegian students are also staying in Arkhangelsk for a semester or two.
A larger university and research conference will be held in Arkhangelsk in the autumn 2012 to evaluate the 20-years experience of university cooperation in the Barents Regions and set the direction for the future.
