Student Parliament fears weakened academic quality:
Insufficient from UiO
The Student Parliament is criticising the University of Oslo of providing poor guidance, curriculum accessibility and information for students.
På norsk; "SEEKING MEASURES: Leader of LMU, Marianne Torp, Psychology student Kim Rand-Hendriksen and leader of HFSU, Thomas André Syvertsen, are hoping for a brighter future at UiO; more and better tutors and a curriculum that is at the right place at the right time.")
SEEKING MEASURES: Leader of LMU, Marianne Torp, Psychology student Kim Rand-Hendriksen and leader of HFSU, Thomas André Syvertsen, are hoping for a brighter future at UiO; more and better tutors and a curriculum that is at the right place at the right time.
FOTO: Mari Hagen
- These examples show grave failures, leader of LMU Marianne Torp says.
- This is unworthy a University which aims at providing education at a top-notch European level, responsible for academic affairs in the Student Parliament Kristian Meisingset says.
According to Meisingset, delays are way too common at UiO. Meisingset and the Student Parliament draw attention to three points in particular:
- Delayed appointment of tutors for Master students.
- Delayed access to the curriculum
- Delayed information about teaching schedules
Too poor guidance
Universitas has interviewed students at four faculties, who could all identify themselves with the issues brought up by the Student Parliament.
Ståle Lund Johansen is among six or seven Law students who have yet to be given a tutor for their dissertations.
- I sent an e-mail to the Faculty and was informed that it was a very time-consuming process to find tutors, Lund Johansen explains.
The leader of a student committee at the Faculty of Humanities (HFSU), Thomas André Syvertsen, confirms that the Faculty of Humanities is troubled by poor guidance as well:
-Many students face tutors who do not respond, attend or read what they are supposed to.
- Measures should be undertaken
- These examples show grave failures, Marianne Torp thinks, who is leader of the Learning environment committee (LMU) at UiO.
- This goes to show that tutors and institutes are unaware of their responsibilities when it comes to safeguarding student rights, and that is regrettable.
Kristian Meisingset thinks that UiO has to implement some serious measures in order to prevent further delays.
- Quality measures must be dealt with at an institutional level, in a co-operation between the management, students and scientific staff. And UiO has to see to it that this is maintained. If not, the tardiness will affect academic quality and environment, Meisingset says.
Studiedirektør at UiO, Monica Bakken, says that the University can never rule out the possibility of mistakes completely.
- We cannot cover ourselves against human errors. I encourage students to consult their academic environment.
- But this has been a problem since 1996. Isn’t it about time UiO undertakes formal measures?
- I think we do intervene where failures occur in a systematic fashion. This spring, we will among others be working on guidelines for guidance upon request from the Student Parliament. It is hard to say whether the examples Meisingset is giving are indeed merely isolated incidents, Bakken says.
