A new market for students of Arabic is emerging as a result of the changing world order: the armed forces\' and the police\'s secret services divisions are recruiting graduates in Arabic and Islamic studies. The numbers of students of Arabic at the University have risen correspondingly, up from 32 applicants in 2002 to 145 this term. 93 of these term\'s applicants were ultimately offered a place at the University. The academic head of department at the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, Bjørn Olav Utvik, confirms that the intelligence service\'s interest in Arabic language and Islamic studies increased markedly after 11/09. Three former students of the University of Oslo are currently employed by the armed forces\' intelligence service. Due to the nature of their tasks, they are unable to comment on their work.

Major E–mail Chaos

Wednesday night the University\'s entire e–mail system collapsed, and one or more of the eleven components of the system have been out of function at any one time for shorter or longer periods since. 172 of the University\'s users have been singularly unlucky, having all received e–mails between 10.10 p.m. Sunday evening and 3 p.m. on Monday deleted.