Linnaeus-Palme is a programme for teaching staff and students at university that aims to strengthen Swedish educational institutions’ cooperation with universities in developing countries in order to expand and increase global contacts within higher education. The Linnaeus-Palme programme aims to stimulate cooperation based on mutual benefit between higher education institutions in Sweden and developing countries. While the overall objective is to increase participants’ international awareness, each project should have a specific academic objective for its exchange. The intention is for mutual cooperation between higher education institutions to benefit participating countries in the long term and to form the basis for a broader partnership between them. Mutual benefit is central to the Linnaeus-Palme programme; the partners should be able to cooperate on an equal footing, despite the fact that there may be a considerable difference in their available resources.

Planning phase commenced with initial discussion meetings held in 2010 in Colombo and Umea.

Phase II (2011-12)

First staff exchange commenced in 2011.

• Dr. Nalin Ranasinghe of UCSC was at Dept. of Computer Science, Umea University, Sweden during Nov-Dec 2012
• Mr. Leif Marklund of Department of Applied Educational Science, Umea University, Sweden was at UCSC during Jan-Feb 2012
• Dr. Anuja Dharmaratne of UCSC was at Department of Applied Educational Science, Umea University, Sweden during Apr-May 2012
• Dr Erik Billing of Dept. of Computer Science, Umea University, Sweden during June-July 2012

Phase III (2012-13)

Staff exchange is expected to continue along with student exchange.