The Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) and Higher Education Partnership (HEP) Programme support cooperation projects between higher education institutions in Finland and the developing world that are designed to enhance higher education provision in these countries. The projects support the higher education institutions in developing their subject-specific, methodological, educational and administrative capacities.

Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides funding for the programmes through its development cooperation funds. The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) administrates the programmes.

Men walking on a bridge
Photo: Jaakko Kaisto

Supporting education in developing countries helps them to promote skills development, establish a well-functioning, efficient and equal society, encourage entrepreneurship, drive sustainable development and reduce poverty.

The HEI ICI and HEP programmes are thus in line with Finland’s foreign development policy objectives, however, the projects are all designed to reflect each individual country’s specific development aims and must be based on the needs identified by the higher education institutions themselves.
 

This section provides information for HEP coordinators for implementing the projects. 

Documents guiding the implementation of the projects
UM vakioehdot HEP 2023-10-10 (pdf, 334.29 KB)
HEP Admin Handbook 2024-2026 (pdf, 578.18 KB)
HEP Change Request Form.docx (docx, 83.64 KB)
Reporting documents
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This section provides information for HEI ICI coordinators for implementing the projects. 

Reporting Requirements

Projects receiving HEI ICI funding are required to submit annual reports to the Finnish National Agency for Education. The reporting must be results-based and comprise of both financial and project activity information, based on the project-specific indicators. Further information on reporting requirements is available below. 

All reports and attachments need to be submitted through the EDUFI online reporting system.

Reporting schedule for projects 2020-2024

  1. 2020 annual progress report - deadline 31 March 2021
  2. 2021 annual progress report - deadline 31 March 2022
  3. 2022 annual progress report - deadline 31 March 2023
  4. 2023 annual progress report - deadline 31 March 2024
  5. Final project report - deadline 31 October 2024
Documents guiding the implementation of the projects
Change Request form (docx, 22.88 KB)
Reporting documents
Instructions for reporting are available in the Admin Handbook
Procurement of fixed assets (xlsx, 10.79 KB)
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Teacher education, climate change and the circular economy, and food security have been chosen as the priorities of the HEP programme during the funding period 2024–2026.

Among other objectives, the projects selected to receive financing will aim to develop food security training in Nepal, enhance the use of biogas as an energy source in Zambia, continue the cooperation to develop teacher education in Mozambique and promote the educational inclusion of persons with disabilities in Tanzania. The HEP programme builds on its predecessor the HEI ICI programme by retaining a focus on developing innovative teaching methods and improving distance-teaching practices.

There are seven partner countries. A new partner, Rwanda, is involved in two projects. Other partners in Africa are Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia and Namibia, who have been partners before. The Nepalese project is the only partner in Asia. 

Projects 2024-2026
HEP projects 2024-2026 (pdf, 113.33 KB)
HEP projects on a map (pdf, 185.29 KB)
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Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted 11,2 million euros for higher education institutions' development cooperation projects with the aim to support capacity of distance learning and improved access of higher education for students in the global south.

HEI ICI programme has three main themes: Solving the global learning crises, Climate adaptation and mitigation and innovation development to increase employability at large scale. The selected projects will develop digital learning environments such as MOOCs, study modules and distance courses. They will strengthen teacher’s pedagogical capacity of digital and blended learning, develop digital learning platforms, improve IT skills and  working life conditions  of the HEIs.

Selected projects operate in eight countries in Asia and Africa. Partner country institutions include Higher education institutions form capital regions as well as smaller institutions from other regions. Partnerships support also thematic institutional cooperation between Finnish higher education institutions and in many projects, there is collaboration between universities and universities of applied sciences.  Moreover, multi-stakeholder cooperation is emphasized. In addition to higher education institution partners, there are non-governmental organisation, ministries of education, other government organisation’s and private companies (for example ed-tech companies) involved from Finland and partner countries.

List of the selected projects
HEI ICI on a map (pdf, 165.96 KB)
Projects 2020-2024 (pdf, 116.49 KB)
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The Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland granted a total of 12 million euros to development cooperation projects carried out by higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2017-2020. The funding was used to implement 20 projects in 16 countries to strengthen higher education in the developing world. 

The cooperation focused on the least developed countries in Africa and Asia, especially on Finland’s development cooperation partner countries. Other countries, such as Peru and Myanmar, were also represented.

The cooperation took place in HEI networks of varying size and geographical coverage. Several academic fields were covered, with a noteworthy focus on multi-disciplinary collaboration, business incubation and innovation, as well as teacher training and education.

The support was used to develop e.g. study programmes and teaching methods in the participating HEIs, to provide continuing education for the staff, and to strengthen research capacity and working life connections. The projects contributed to the development of subject-specific, methodological, pedagogical and administrative capacities in the HEIs.
 

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HEI ICI project results have been monitored both annually and periodically since the programme's launch in 2010. Read more about the results below.
 

HEI ICI reports
Publications
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Please send all enquiries concerning the projects to hei.ici(at)oph.fi or hep(at)oph.fi. 

EDUFI programme administration contacts:

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