Excellence through internationalization: turning “losers ” into “winners” [engineering education]

Some features of the Norwegian system for engineering education are briefly described. A sample of 40-50 transfer students from Telemark College to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (USA) are then used to illustrate a group of academic “losers” transformed into “winners”. Thereafter, some major points are pointed out and briefly discussed in order to sketch an explanation to the apparent transformation which takes place among these students. Finally, the authors give a short discussion of possible extra benefits emerging from student transfers to the United States