Row as plan to cut study places breaches mergers promise

Two years after the most extensive university mergers in two decades were agreed, serious concerns are being raised in Norway’s parliament about proposals that breach the government’s promise that mergers would not lead to a cut in study places.

When the mergers were being agreed in 2015, Bjørn Haugstad, secretary of state, said: “In a few years we will see a landscape with significantly fewer universities and university colleges. But there will not be a reduction in study places.”

But in a note to the board of Nord University on 24 April, rector Hanne Solheim Hansen proposed significant structural changes to the university, affecting nine study locations at the institution. Activities will be severely cut at some of the locations and phased out altogether at two campuses at Sandnessjøen and Nesna.

Nesna has been central in the training of teachers since its establishment in 1918 but has experienced reduced recruitment over recent decades. Sandnessjøen provides nursing education.

The proposals have been given the go-ahead by the board and have been sent to stakeholders for comments before a final decision is made at another board meeting on 26 June. Hansen’s proposal immediately led to heated debate in parliament and numerous media articles, mostly opposing the proposal.

The Nord University rector’s key argument is that it is not possible to keep up the quality and the requirement for research-based teaching under the present resource allocation from the government.

She said: “The proposal is a comprehensive solution that will develop and grow the university academically, and, in turn, strengthen its ability to deliver high-quality research and candidates. We must also ensure a more efficient use of the infrastructure and create leeway for necessary strategic development.”

Two campuses at Bodø and Levanger will be ‘enhanced’ to increase the university’s research contributions, boost quality in the academic fields and relocate financial resources of approximately NOK50 million (US$5.7 million) annually from infrastructure to academic activities, she said.

“This proposal facilitates for strong and viable academic communities, keeps the university’s position as a strong educational institution and will function as a driver for growth and development in the region we represent,” she said.

Premier and education minister questioned

But following publication of the proposal, both Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Minister of Research and Higher Education Iselin Nybø faced several hours of questions in parliament on the topic from the opposition on 7 May and Nybø was grilled again on 15 May.

Solberg said it was important that Nord University lifts the quality and the supply of courses.

“I think that the process must start from below and that we can find a solution where we can address the issue [of campus closures] if it is not sustainable,” she said.

But Marit Arnstad, the parliamentary leader of the opposition Centre Party, which had strongly opposed the mergers, accused the government of hiding behind the board of Nord University, “allowing the board to close down regional campuses”.

She asked if the prime minister was concerned about a knock-on effect of the centralisation of higher education institutions and speculated that the process would “hit the University of South-Eastern Norway in the next round because they now have activities at eight study places”.

Local political mobilisation

Marius Meisfjord Jøsevold, a member of the Socialist Left Party from Nordland who is also a member of the education committee in parliament, said that it was a sad day for Nesna, and would force 85 staff members to relocate.

“This is a catastrophe for the community on the coast of Helgeland. We in the county of Nordland are lacking 600 nurses and 900 teachers. We have a responsibility [to train people] outside the [main population] centres of Norway,” he argued.

He also asked if it was cost effective to vacate the houses built for education at these locations, worth several hundred million kroner.

Minister Nybø, who in February attended a board meeting at Nord University, said in parliament that it is the board that finally has to decide which campuses and study locations should eventually be closed down and which courses should be taught at which study places.

But Arnstad said it is not true that the government does not have any means to intervene in the process of closing down campuses. “The government is hiding under the skirts of the board,” she said.

Arnstad told Forskerforum the proposal amounted to “headless centralism which is not going to solve any of the problems encountered by Nord University”.

The Centre Party is currently climbing significantly in the polls as the public has reacted negatively to government centralisation of public services.

Politicians ‘interfering’

Meanwhile, the leader of the National Union of Students in Norway, Håkon Randgaard Mikalsen, said it is worrying that politicians are interfering in the future of Nord University.

“If the board of Nord University finds it impossible to maintain the activities at Nesna campus, it is their plight to do something about this,” he told Khrono, the Oslo Metropolitan University newspaper.

Sigurd Allern, professor emeritus at the University of Oslo and a respected commentator on higher education policies, told Uniforum, the University of Oslo newspaper: “Nord University is being used as a crowbar for university concentration. The basic problems with the structural reforms that we now see is that they were too hastily implemented and were severely underfunded.”

“After the closures experienced by Nord University, others will follow,” he said, accusing politicians of abdicating their responsibilities.

The board of Nord University will decide on this proposal, taking into consideration all elements in the case, in a meeting on 26 June.