Students slow to finish degrees

Only 35- to 40 percent of Norwegian college and university students finish their degree programs within what’s considered the normal time, according to a report from the Ministry of Education and Research. Critics say the last two governments have failed to push through promised measures to speed up students’ progress. The percentage of students in Norway [...]

NHH most popular despite conflicts

Studies at the Norwegian School of Economics (Norges Handelshøyskole, NHH) in Bergen remain the most popular in the country despite some highly publicized conflicts involving the school’s newly departed chief executive and a tough election campaign for the school’s new dean. Fully 2,265 students listed an economics and administration major at NHH as their first [...]

Students tops in taking a year off

Norwegian students top European rankings of high school graduates who opt to take a year off before starting college or going to work. With few financial worries about pursing higher education, and long traditions for “living life” before settling down to work or study, more than 60 percent of young Norwegians take time for some [...]

Business schools caught in conflicts

Norway’s two major high-level business schools BI and NHH are both caught in conflicts over personnel and organization. Criticism also erupted this week over how the University of Oslo recruits its top academic talent. The conflict at Norwegian Business School BI in Oslo mostly concerns the management style of the school’s dean, Tom Colbjørnsen, and [...]

More Norwegian students head for the US

There’s been a big increase in the number of Norwegian students opting for universities in the US, after several years of decline in early 2000s. The US Embassy in Oslo reported Tuesday that enrollment is up 60 percent since 2008. A total of 2,016 Norwegians studied in the US in the academic year 2011-2012. The [...]

Universities dive in new rankings

Not a single Norwegian university made it into the rankings of the top 200 universities in the world this year. One of them received among the lowest scores for universities located in the Nordic countries, and Norway ended up with a generally poorer showing than in earlier years. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) published the World [...]

Tuition looms for foreign students

Norwegian universities have been hit by a wave of applications from foreign students lately, and some politicians suspect it’s because they’re still tuition-free for foreign citizens as well as Norwegians. That may change, if a growing bloc of politicians get their way. The Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkeparti, KrF), The Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) and the [...]

Record number of Norwegians are studying abroad

Never before have so many Norwegian students been studying abroad. Their most popular destination is Great Britain, where more than 4,000 young Norwegians are undertaking their entire higher education and another thousand are taking part of it. All told, around 23,400 young Norwegians traveled out of Norway to pursue higher education. Fully 4,164 Norwegians are [...]

Students face housing squeeze

Norwegian media carry stories every August about how difficult it is for college students to find housing, especially in Oslo. This year, real estate experts and student housing authorities agree that the housing shortage is acute, with a lot of poor accommodation offered at record high prices. One factor is a record high number of [...]

Most new residents come from elsewhere in Europe

Nearly 25,000 citizens from countries within the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland and Liechtenstein) registered themselves as resident in Norway during the first half of this year. Another 17,500 persons from outside the European area received residence permission as well. The numbers show how immigration is fueling Norway’s population growth, and how Norway’s [...]

Design school scores high marks

After years of complaints that Norwegian schools don’t rank high enough on international listings comes some vindication: The Oslo School of Architecture and Design has landed in the Top Ten of design and architecture schools worldwide. Scandinavian design has been fairly hot for many years, with Norwegian designers attracting lots of international recognition. It was, [...]

Foreign students are being studied themselves

There’s been a big increase in the number of foreign students applying to Norwegian colleges and universities, which remain tuition-free for both Norwegians and foreigners alike. Researchers are now studying how many foreign graduates actually stay in Norway to work, and whether Norway benefits from offering higher education for free. Newspaper Aftenposten reported recently that [...]

More doctorates to foreigners

Never before has the University of Bergen (UiB) awarded more doctorate degrees than it did last year, and more than a third of them went to foreign doctoral candidates. The university reported this week that a total of 254 doctorates were awarded in 2011, 17 more than the year before. University dean Sigmund Grønmo said [...]

Norwegian center opens at Cal

Six Norwegian universities, Norway’s research council and two Norwegian business schools are pooling resources to open the new Norwegian Peder Sather Center for Advanced Studies at the University of California at Berkeley (Cal). The center is meant to provide Norwegian researchers a base for development and cooperation at what they consider one of the world’s [...]

Students reject embassy’s complaints

A Norwegian students’ organization is fending off pressure from the Iranian Embassy in Oslo to remove posters that the organization has spread to all colleges and universities around the country. The embassy finds the posters offensive because they depict the late Ayatollah Khomeini on the run from protesting students. The poster is part of an [...]

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