The Health Information Systems Programme
One of the most successful partnerships between UiO and partners in the Global South, is the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP). This is an interdisciplinary cooperation between Health sciences and informatics which started up with a small capacity building project in South Africa in 1994. Today their open source software, DHIS 2, is considered an international standard, and potentially covering more than 1.3 billion people. The HISP recipe has been a combination of open source software, action research and capacity building. HISP is a collaboration with universities and governments in many African and Asian countries, where the network has contributed to establishment of master programmes in Health Informatics and education of more than 500 Master and 40 PhD candidates. The HISP programme received the UiO's innovation award in 2013.
Student internships and practice
It is also important for students to gain working experience from other parts of the world. The Norwegian embassies abroad offer opportunities for internships e.g. in the Global South. UiO encourages students to apply for these internships. Bachelor students in Dental Care may go for 5 weeks to Tanga International Competence Centre (TICC) in Tanzania where they shadow experienced health workers in the field. In the NORPART programme for cooperation with developing countries, cooperation with industrial partners is better facilitated than in earlier programmes, and internships in the partner countries will be one of the activities.