From the fall of 2011 it will no longer be possible to get a degree in sign language and interpretation at the University of Oslo.

The study programme for sign language and interpretation at the Department of Special Needs Education (DNSE) at the University of Oslo (UiO) is being shut down, due to the study programme´s economic deficit. The decision was made at a board meeting at the department the 28th of April this year.
– This puts an effective stop to deaf people’s possibilities to participate in social situations, says Marius Berge Eide, who is hearing impaired himself in addition to being a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MatNat) at UiO.

Ethically irresponsible

In February Universitas wrote that a suggestion of a stop of entrances at the study programme was passed, due to the department´s economic situation. Students are still enrolled for fall 2010 because the programme was still available on the Norwegian Universities and Colleges Admission Service, NUCAS´, websites. As of now, a full stop of entrance has been agreed upon.

Eide thinks that it is a mistake to give less priority to the interpretation study programme.
– The interpreter is the link between a deaf person and the world, and the only way to ensure reliable and balanced communication. Now that more people get access to CI (hearing aid adapted to deaf people), the need for sign language and interpreters is given less priority in school, at home, medically and politically. Ethically this is reprehensible – deaf people are robbed for the possibility to create a safe identity in which they can function on the same level as the rest of society, says Eide.
He thinks it is shocking that DNSP has yet again agreed to shut down the BA in sign language and interpretation.

Will affect deaf students

Sissel Gjøen is the temporarily appointed general secretary in Norges Døveforbund, the Norwegian organization for deaf people in Norway. She thinks the dismantling of the study programme will be of great consequence for deaf and hearing-impaired students.
– It is necessary to offer a study programme in sign language and interpretation in Oslo, where the largest concentration of users of interpreters is located. This means large consequences for the number of interpreters, a number originally low. Deaf and hearing-impaired students will be highly affected if no interpreters graduate in Oslo, says Gjøen.

Gjøen also says that the organization for the deaf and hearing-impaired will keep working for an acceptable offer of interpreters in Oslo. Among other things, they have spoken to the rector at UiO. He has promised to bring the issue to the Ministry of Education and Research.

– Unfortunate dismantling

The faculty board thinks it is regrettable if the dismantling affects a linguistic minority in Norway, but they list several professional and economic reasons for the decision.
– Professionally there is little research done in this area, and the teaching in the programme is not adequately based on research. We have therefore chosen to prioritize the Master´s programme in special education. Additionally the study programme is underfinanced, a fact that represents a problem because the department has a very weak economy, says Vibeke Grøver Aukrust, dean at the Faculty of Education (UV).