Cabinet reshuffle raises hopes for internationalisation

A government reshuffle, which handed the post of minister of research and higher education to a Labour Party parliamentary member for the first time in 25 years, has been welcomed by stakeholders who hope it will signal a more open attitude towards internationalisation.

Eight ministers of the Centre Party in the minority government, including current Minister of Research and Higher Education Oddmund Hoel, left the two-party minority coalition government on 29 January over disagreement on Norway’s energy policy with the European Union.

Hoel, who is to be replaced by Sigrun Aasland (46), who has a masters degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, and was state secretary to the minister of climate and environment, is the third minister of the Centre Party to have left the government since it was formed in 2021. He also has the distinction of being the seventh minister of the portfolio over a period of seven years.

Hoel’s exit comes in the wake of the departures of previous ministers Ola Borten Moe and Sandra Borch, as reported at the time by University World News.

Lacking in popularity

In response to the reshuffle, Khrono chief editor Tove Lie wrote an article suggesting that there was little sorrow attached to the Centre Party vacating the higher education and research portfolio.

The party had made themselves fundamentally unpopular within the higher education sector, Lie said, speculating as to whether the Labour Party might steer a similar course.

In Forskerforum, the emphasis was on the need for the new incumbent to “repair the relations with the higher education sector”. Meanwhile, Aksel Kjær Vidnes suggested in Forskning.no that the changeover could signal an “end to the chaotic governance of Norwegian research”.

Universitetsavisa, the newspaper of Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU), asked: “Do we need a new minister dedicated to the task of wreaking havoc with the country’s universities?”

In a more moderate response, Margareth Hagen, rector of the University of Bergen, said the Centre Party had made its mark on the sector by increasing the focus on smaller higher education institutions and pushing for the availability of higher education throughout the country.

However, she told Khrono: “What I am most critical of is that the Centre Party did not manage to see how important it is for research and higher education to be international. That has weakened the sector.”

Taking up the issue on her university blog page, she wrote: “Our international work has unfortunately lost several important tools over the last years. In 2023 we were commanded to claim full tuition fees for students from outside the EU.

“The effect of this budget cut was immediate and dramatic: a sharp reduction and almost eradication of international degree students from outside the EU. We have warned that this is a shortsighted policy that will weaken the quality and Norway’s international range.”

Reflecting on his own achievements in office, Hoel listed the decentralisation of higher education institutions. “Here, we have changed the course, and the need for knowledge in the districts is now taken more seriously,” he said.

He also mentioned the promotion of Norwegian as a research language, notably the requirement that all employees of higher education institutions have at least 15 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) points in the Norwegian language. As reported by University World News, the move was severely criticised.

Hopes for a U-turn

Stakeholders approached by University World News expressed the hope that a new Labour Party minister would mean a significant shift in the government’s direction, particularly on the matter of internationalisation.

University of Bergen Professor Emeritus Ivar Bleiklie had said previously in an interview that under the Centre Party, the idea of higher education as a long-term investment in internationally grounded research excellence and future research-based economic growth and innovation had “given way to a vision of higher education as an instrument for short-term national investment in educational programmes that satisfy immediate and short-term needs to supply the labour market with properly educated Norwegian nationals”.

This week Bleiklie noted: “With a new incoming minister from the Labour Party there is some – albeit modest – hope that some of the current policies most detrimental to research and international scholarly exchange might be modified or even reversed.”

Selma Bratberg, leader of the executive committee of the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH), an international solidarity organisation, agreed.

“We live in a time when democracy is on the decline and we’re facing big, global challenges. We need a higher education sector that responds to this.

“At the same time [that] the government with Hoel as the Minister of higher education and research has taken Norwegian academia in a more nationalistic direction, we hope that a new minister and a Labour Party government will reverse this trend and prioritise international collaboration,” she said.

Øyvind Bryhn Pettersen, president of the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA) told University World News his association has had “a very good collaboration with Oddmund Hoel over several years, not least over the period he has been the minister”.

However, he added: “It is no secret that we have been at odds with the government and the Centre Party. ANSA is hoping that a new direction in the higher education policy might include a new commitment to internationalisation and student exchanges. Then a good first step would be to reverse several of the measures the Centre party has introduced during this period”.

Professor Edvard Moser, founding director of the Centre for the Biology of Memory at NTNU, and co-winner with May-Britt Moser and John O’Keefe of the Nobel Prize winner in Medicine or Physiology in 2014, told University World News that he hoped the new government would show it was serious about statements on the importance of closer connections, particularly in research, between Norway and Europe and the rest of the world “by immediately removing the compulsory Norwegian language requirement so that we can continue to recruit and collaborate internationally”.

Concerns about quality

Professor Bjørn Stensaker, vice-rector for education at the University of Oslo, said Labour now had a chance to demonstrate that quality is important to the government.

“While relevance and the need for higher education to respond to societal needs have been priority number one, it would be nice if, politically, we had an acknowledgement that without quality, the emphasis on relevance is irrelevant,” he told University World News.

“For the University of Oslo, internationalisation is part of our DNA, and our hope is that we might see a more proactive approach to Europe and to our global dependencies and responsibilities. We need a new deal on internationalisation – not least when we see the importance given to research and innovation in Europe.”

Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, who has led two of the region’s most internationalised universities – the University of Oslo in Norway and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm – said via email: “I must confess that I breathed a sigh of relief when I learnt that the Centre Party will leave the government and that a new minister for research and higher education will be in place, now representing the Labour Party.

“The policies that have impacted the higher education sector over the past few years have run counter to what Norway so sorely needs to face an increasingly turbulent, competitive, and challenging future.

“We need to step up our internationalisation efforts knowing that the competition for talents is on the increase. We need to invest more in fundamental research and excellence, and we need to respond to the Draghi report that in no uncertain terms tells us that Europe is lagging behind in innovation and advanced technologies.”

Multistakeholder group

Ottersen said that the new government and the new minister should see it as a priority to reverse the ill-fated political decisions that over the past few years have set Norway back as a study destination and knowledge nation.

“Let me suggest that the new government, as a first step, establish a multi-stakeholder group (including representatives of the private sector as well as academia) that is tasked with addressing the current impediments to our internationalisation efforts. Tuition fees and language policies should serve as a perfect starting point for the upcoming discussions,” Ottersen stated.

Mats Benner, a professor in science policy studies at Lund University’s School of Economics and Management and past member of the Swedish government’s Research Advisory Board (2009-10, 2015-16), told University World News that from his perspective as an outside observer of Norwegian university politics for some years, the recent developments in Norway were “neither a surprise nor a tragedy”.

He explained: “Seldom has one seen a more agnostic minister of higher education and research, with only a minimum of engagement with the university sector.

“It will be interesting to see if the Labour Party will step up its game now. With its illustrious past in the area and its progressive record, it now has an opportunity to profile higher education and research as keys to a stronger and more robust Norwegian society and economy.”