The system of student complaints regarding the working environment at Norwegian institutions of learning is being criticized as insufficient. – The students could complain more, says Director of Academic Affairs at the University of Oslo.

- The current system of a learning environment committee at each school, and the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority as the supervising authority, is not working, says Per Anders Langerød, the National Union of Students in Norway (NSU).

Langerød thinks that they study environment at educational institutions are flawed, pointing to amongst other things lack of ventilation, and buildings not adhering to universal standards of design. He is of the opinion that students often do not know where to inquire about these things.

Students are not included in the Working Environment Act, which secures employees’ rights in the workplace. All the same, the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges gives the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority responsibility for supervising the educational institutions. However, the last time they had an inspection at the University of Oslo (UiO) was over three years ago, in 2005.

Complaints can be directed towards the learning environment committee at the institution that the student belongs to. Director of Academic Affairs at UiO Monica Bakken says that the students should complain more than they do at present, and admits that underreporting of complaints and deviations can occur.

- With 30 000 students, it is clear that there are many things to come to grips with. More complaints would probably make the problems we are working with more visible, she says.

No new inspections

Pål Lund, Head of Department at the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority in Oslo, says that there are no new inspections planned in the near future. He tells us that the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority carries out around 1500 inspections of workplaces and schools every year in Oslo alone.

- Either we come and do random checks, or we follow up on actual complaints that we receive, he says.

He does not think that there are abnormally few inspections at educational institutions, considering their activity all in all.

- We do of course wish that we could follow up schools and workplaces more closely, but it is a question of resources. We have noticeably fewer complaints from schools than from other companies, he says and points out that this might mean that the learning environment at the schools is quite good.

Henning Jakhelln, professor of labour law at the Department of Public and International Law at UiO, thinks that few complaints do not necessarily mean an immaculate learning environment.

- Many students probably do not know that the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority has the superior responsibility for the learning environment. Besides, you stop complaining if you are used to poor conditions.

Jakhelln believes that another factor can be what each student reads into «a good learning environment».

- Many probably think first and foremost of buildings and clean toilets, but the indoor environment and the psychosocial learning environment. These cases can also be possible cases for the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority to take hold of.

An insufficient system

Thomas Tallaksen, leader of the Learning Environment Committee at UiO, is unhappy with the state of things.

- In general, we have an insufficient system for reporting complaints at the university. Many cases are taken care of at each unit, without being reported to us. That means that we do not get an overview of the scope of the problem, and do not have the opportunity to look more closely at principal cases that could be important for students at other units, he says.

Langerød thinks that the learning environment committees must be given authority to order the board to improve the shortcomings at the institutions. Monica Bakken thinks however that UiO are good at settling things on a local level.

- We have as our goal to solve as many problems as possible on a local level, and we succeed in this. It is possible that we can improve when it comes to sending cases on to the Learning Environment Committee, she says.