FOTO: Åshild Bekke Eidem

On 1 June the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development introduced a requirement stating that visa applicants wishing to come to Norway must have travel insurance covering a minimum of NOK 30 000. As a result, many of the guests invited to the international student festival in Trondheim, ISFit, have now declined their invitations. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear that visitors attending ISFit may be exempted from this requirement, a number of local embassies have chosen to enforce the new requirement, in effect making it impossible for many of the guests to participate at the festival.

It appears that the protests against the new Act on Universities and University Colleges have had some success. Universitas has learned that the Storting’s Committee on Education, KUF, is to present its recommendations for the new Act on Thursday, and that the committee has opposed the Ministry of Education’s proposal on a number of important issues. These include the recommendation to retain the election of rectors. In addition, the recommendation goes against Ministry’s proposal that it is to appoint the chairman of the universities’ Board of Directors. It is also likely that the formulation that universities and university colleges may not “as a general rule” charge school fees will be modified, barring them from charging school fees. The Act will also include an emphasis that universities must be autonomous institutions that ensure freedom of research.