Set to exclude international students
Student Administration wants to eliminate the Norwegian course for self-providing undergraduates, and thus preventing non-Norwegian speakers from studying at Bachelor’s level.
Self-providing international students who wish to do a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Oslo (UiO) have until now been supported through a free Norwegian course of one year’s duration in order to participate in teaching. The academic committee has proposed the following in the notice to this Friday’s University Senate meeting: International students, who are not Norwegian speakers, cannot take part in Bachelor courses taught in Norwegian at UiO. However, their intention to eliminate the Norwegian course from self-providing students is not mentioned specifically in the notice.
– The Norwegian courses were meant to attract more international students to Norway. Therefore, it is regrettable if they want to eliminate the opportunity of studying in Norway for this group of students, responsible for international students in the Student Parliament Iselin A. Rud-Goksøyr says, and she informs that UiO is lagging behind on their own intended number of international students.
– Weakened integration
According to a document available to Universitas, there are administrative reasons behind the anticipated elimination of the Norwegian course. Student Administration spends 1.5 person-years on executive officers. Last year, the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies exceeded the budget with more than NOK 134,000 in relation to expected costs of the Norwegian courses. The document also indicates intentions of focusing on Master’s degree students in stead because there are twice as many applicants from postgraduates.
As a result, leader of International Student Union (ISU) Eton Williams dreads weakened integration.
– The problem is that postgraduates are often under more pressure as to marks, and thus sit at home revising as opposed to socialising with other students, Williams says. For this reason, he believes that undergraduates contribute more to integration.
Committed
Williams is from Jamaica and studies Electronics and Computer Science. As a self-providing undergraduate, he got his free Norwegian course two years ago and is now involved in student welfare. In addition to his ISU commitments, he is member of an international committee in the Student Parliament. He thinks that international undergraduates, who have taken Norwegian courses, are the most integrated, present company included.
– This is a large University, and international students may find speaking with Norwegian fellow students uncomfortable if they do not get by in the language, Williams says.
– It is therefore unwise to take money from one group and give to another, and still be hoping for improved integration, Rud-Goksøyr continues.
Tried before
This issue was first presented in 2002. It created quite a stir in the Student Parliament back then as well. Judging from available documents on the matter, it seems as if the current intention is for student politicians to be left out from any decision-making.
The document reads among others: «Student Administration holds that any considerations as to the elimination of the course should primarily be made by central University authorities, partly because this is an institutional matter, and because the use of resources mainly lies in the hands of central authorities and the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies».
Universitas was unsuccessful in its attempts to reach studiedirektør at UiO Monica Bakken, responsible for this issue in the academic committee under the Senate.
