Despite the fact that UiO has doubled the amount of exchange students, the University is still lagging behind compared to the rest of the country’s universities.

FOTO: Sindre T. Lønnes

At the universities of Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø, 3.5 per cent of the students take part in exchange programs, whereas only 2.5 per cent of the students do the same at UiO.

It is the attraction to Norway which is UiO’s biggest problem: 803 students from UiO were off on exchange programs last year, whereas only 658 international students came to Oslo.

Leader of the International Students` Union, Ricardo Duque, thinks that UiO has employed the wrong market strategy in relation to the international market.

- UiO tries to market itself by focusing on Norway’s beautiful fjords and outstanding nature, but that is not what sells to international students. They desire information about the University’s academic strength, education opportunities and available programmes, he says.

Iselin A. Rud-Goksøyr, responsible for international affairs in the Student Parliament, agrees.

- External marketing is not satisfactory. For instance, the information available in English on UiO’s web pages is insufficient, she says.

Rud-Goksøyr also feels that the information regarding exchange programmes is hard to locate on the web pages of most of UiO’s faculties.

Hoping for a solid growth

Sectional manager of UiO’s section for internationalisation, Guri Vestad, admits that information regarding exchange programmes is not up to code.

- We get feedback from students all the time saying that they miss information about what exchange alternatives that are available, Vestad says.

In 2003, the new academic reform for higher education, the so-called Quality Reform, was implemented. One of its milestones was the requirement of increased internationalisation. UiO’s objective for 2003 was to double the amount of exchange students. Four years ago, 744 students took part in exchange programmes. Last year’s records show 1481 students.

- We have reached our objective, but we realize that there is still a long way to go. We are now hoping for a solid growth, which can bring us back to double the amount in a few years, Vestad says.