2024

New Universities and Colleges Act

A new act for universities and university colleges has been created (only in Norwegian yet) and entered into force 1. August 2024. The act contains regulations for all aspects of higher education, from the institutions’ overall responsibilities to the representation of students in governing bodies at all levels. The act will be augmented with regulations that are now being adapted.

2023

Action plan for strengthening Norwegian as an academic language

In a survey about the use of languages in higher education in Norway, 61 per cent of the respondents replied that they teach in English and 89 per cent teach in Norwegian. These findings have resulted in a national action plan, whose purpose is to implement measures that are powerful enough to provide a real strengthening of Norwegian professional language, while at the same time the domain loss for English is to be counteracted and gradually reversed. The action plan must both launch new measures and coordinate existing measures. It will also contribute to ensure that the responsibility for Norwegian professional language comes up higher on the agenda in academia, both nationally and at the institutions. The professional environment in Norwegian linguistics plays an important role in this area.

2022

Reforms in the funding system for higher education

Far fewer performance-based indicators, more emphasis on development agreements and flexible education should be financed through framework grants. These are some of the measures that the committee that has looked at the funding system for universities and colleges is proposing to get more diversity and less bureaucracy. They believe that the current system contributes to the alignment of the sector.