Performance agreements in higher education are seen as a promising steering tool in many countries, including Norway. The aims of the performance agreements in Norwegian higher education are to enhance quality and diversity through clearer institutional profiles and better division of labour between institutions. An expert group that carried out an assessment of the funding system recommended the Norwegian Ministry of Education & Research to implement institutional multi-year performance agreements to enhance quality, diversity and cooperation. In 2016–17 the Ministry implemented an incremental process covering initially five plus other five pilot institutions. This article gives an overview of the context, process and framework of performance agreements at the national level as well as how this new steering tool is being handled in one of the pilot institutions. It focuses on the implementation process and is based on qualitative observations and written communication between the Ministry and the pilot institutions. Although, it is still too early to evaluate the results and the impact of performance agreements in Norwegian higher education, the experience so far indicates that it seems to be possible through negotiations between the Ministry and the institutions to strengthen the institutional profile by prioritizing goals and measures. The content in the pilot agreements differ and no obligatory indicators are part of the agreements. The incremental implementation process has limited the discussion on complementarity. Even though actions towards the division of labour between institutions are an important part of some of the agreements, this seems to be a more challenging task than profiling.

中文翻译：

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更清晰的机构概况和更好的分工的绩效协议

在包括挪威在内的许多国家，高等教育绩效协议被视为一种很有前途的指导工具。挪威高等教育绩效协议的目的是通过更清晰的机构概况和机构之间更好的分工来提高质量和多样性。对资助体系进行评估的专家组建议挪威教育与研究部实施机构多年绩效协议，以提高质量、多样性和合作。在 2016-17 年，该部实施了一个渐进的过程，最初涵盖了五个和其他五个试点机构。这篇文章概述了上下文，国家一级绩效协议的流程和框架，以及试点机构之一如何处理这一新的指导工具。它侧重于实施过程，并基于该部与试点机构之间的定性观察和书面沟通。虽然现在评估挪威高等教育绩效协议的结果和影响还为时过早，但迄今为止的经验表明，通过教育部和院校之间的谈判，通过优先考虑目标和提高院校形象似乎是可能的。措施。试点协议的内容有所不同，协议中没有强制性指标。增量实施过程限制了对互补性的讨论。