Interplay
UiO is a leading European research university, but one aspect of its potential remains underutilised. It can and must be better at working together to fulfil its mission—its research, education, communication of results and innovation—and at collaborating with the outside labour market and outside institutions. This is how its independent basic research, which is UiO's foundation, will find its most meaningful practical applications, and how its critical thinking will come to serve as a guiding principle for a society undergoing transformative change, and how it will help to solve societal challenges, together with its valued collaborators.
We have chosen the Norwegian term 'samspill' (perhaps best translated as interplay or interaction) as the key principle for our candidacy and platform. This metaphor, borrowed from the arts, describes something greater than the sum of its parts—that is, how a directed orchestra or theatre ensemble accomplishes something greater than a single performer (or random gathering of performers) can achieve alone. We intend for UiO to improve its ability to interact internally and externally, but interplay also signals how we intend to work as the rectorate of UiO. We desire a university that works even harder to collaborate with and benefit from the breadth and depth of talent of its many star players, in turn allowing us all to gain from individual and collective achievements, utilise UiO's unique position as a university located in the capital of Norway, and exploit our proximity to key social institutions in one of the most knowledge-intensive regions in Europe.
By combining our traditional strengths as a research university with a greater openness towards society and the labour market outside UiO, we are convinced that students will be empowered when they enter the working world of the future. Through thoughtful and productive partnerships, we will best contribute to solving the many challenges facing society and, along the way, take back the power to define important research, education and knowledge policy issues.
Achieving these goals for UiO will demand enhanced interaction among students, faculty and staff, as well as careful and engaged orchestration from above. We have therefore formed a team experienced in many modes of collaboration which is used to working together to solve problems, and which can get things done. To successfully lead an organisation as sprawling as UiO, we must be experts at communicating, sharing and facilitating knowledge exchange between different levels of the university structure, across research groups, study programmes, departments and faculties.
The university's main impact on society derives from the students we educate, and their education and learning environment are clear priorities and occupy the first part of our platform.
Students are the future of all knowledge development
Students are the future of all knowledge development for academia and society. We will take full responsibility for enabling each student to grow and succeed, academically and professionally, at UiO and afterward.
UiO degree candidates should contribute to solving current societal challenges and be equipped to address the issues that will affect future society. We intend to ensure that students receive a far greater dividend from UiO's extensive research resources and international contacts. We will also make UiO students more aware of the opportunities and obligations inherent in pursuing an education at a leading European yet globally oriented university. To help UiO students to learn and think critically, we will better utilize current research in UiO's curriculum and continue to create and develop both disciplinary and interdisciplinary study programmes.
We will work to improve the quality of UiO's study programmes. Key issues are follow-up and feedback for student and student-centred teaching methods. We must support students, formally and informally, throughout their course of study and build on the experiences of our very best programmes, from centres for excellence in education to ForVei and similar projects both at and outside UiO. This will boost good learning environments and enable students to complete the programmes they start with.
Working life is changing, and we must ensure that our students acquire skills and competencies that are relevant and tailored to knowledge-intensive jobs and lifelong careers. Digital tools will be crucial to this effort, as will a good dialogue and systematic collaboration with professionals and the labour market.
Many of the biggest changes within the field of education in recent decades have come from outside the university, including new requirements from the Ministry of Education and Research. In our view, UiO must take much greater responsibility for and be more proactive in ensuring the high quality of our own study programmes.
We have high ambitions for the quality of education at UiO. The Underdal Committee has described some of the challenges we all face: UiO's fields of education are hampered by insufficiently comprehensive and coordinated management, indistinct central leadership and weak vertical interaction. The committee has recommended a clearer division of roles and involvement, and we will prioritise this demanding strategic initiative, in the interests of internal communication and collaboration, committed involvement and forthright leadership. But we remain convinced that the quality of one's studies at UiO at all educational levels, from bachelor's to doctoral programmes, is where we must begin. We are therefore standing for election with our own pro-rector in charge of educational affairs at UiO.
Our main priorities:
- Take back the power to define the quality of education
- Allocate sufficient resources to focus effectively on the quality of the study programmes at UiO
- Take comprehensive and clear responsibility for study programmes and learning environments, ensuring productive collaboration and useful progress through a clear focus on good educational leadership
- Intensify university efforts to ensure that students receive good feedback, both academically and socially, and are offered research-related and student-centred learning methods
- Closely monitor the experiences (in terms of quality and cost) of ongoing projects with automatic feedback for exam grades, and evaluate whether this scheme should become standard practice for all courses
A lot is happening in the field of education this spring. Among other things, the Ministry of Education and Research is submitting a white paper on quality in higher education. Team Stølen & Mo will develop its own educational policy manifesto during the run-up to the rector election in April.
Research quality: strengthen UiO's disciplinary and interdisciplinary position
The quality and breadth of UiO academic activities represent our foremost strengths. We must use this to ensure our position as an internationally leading research-intensive university.
The goal of Strategy 2020 is for UiO to strengthen its position as an internationally leading research university at a time of great global competition. In line with this priority, the university is revisiting its knowledge and research policy, because we now find that otherwise excellent research is being measured against expectations regarding specific solutions to society's ongoing challenges, and regarding the accumulation of wealth and creation of jobs. Given the government and society's expectations that UiO should be a leading international university, an unfortunate paradox has emerged concerning the fact that, over time, the current budget model redistributes funds from institutions with overall top performance results to institutions with the greatest performance improvement scores (though these often occur due to a weak starting point).
We must better exploit UiO's comparative advantage by both cultivating and advancing our position as a strong, research-intensive, comprehensive university. We know that the skills and quality that characterise UiO faculties, museums and other units make us internationally competitive, and that they will continue to do so. Yet we must manage these resources in ways that develop them without fragmenting or diluting them. Many issues at the forefront of research today, and many of today's social challenges, engage complex knowledge bases, skills and competencies via multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. While we will focus on selected high-performance units, we will also advocate for the development and renewal of other strong research groups. In many disciplines, young, talented researchers must be cultivated but also given the latitude to advance their ideas and career prospects.
We cannot know where the next ground-breaking thoughts and ideas will arise. Central to our team's research policy, then, will be an effort to work across the organisation to make new scientific breakthroughs possible and cultivate new and cutting-edge research environments. Instead of focussing entirely on those individual academics who are the most outstanding at the moment, we hope to build a culture of quality for all, in research but also in the university's other activities.
Our team will work to provide good conditions for scholarly inquiry and strive to ensure national and international funding for basic research and researcher-initiated projects. We will also strive to ensure that basic research is integrated into the thematic areas that are prioritised by major agencies that provide external research funding.
Our main priorities:
- Develop targeted incentives and support mechanisms to enable UiO researchers to succeed in the national and international competition for external research funding
- Provide differentiated schemes, such as 'Småforsk', to ensure the coordination of internal and external funding of research and have a positive impact on employment and career opportunities for UiO researchers
- Develop a larger toolbox of measures to support multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary approaches to research
- Develop further while learning from the experiences of UiO's three interdisciplinary initiatives
- Experiment with alternative organisational models for dynamic, temporary initiatives
- Work in a systematic and coordinated manner with national and international research policy actors to strengthen the regulatory framework for ensuring quality and independence in research
- Develop a comprehensive human resource policy that is clearly aimed at promoting quality research
- Establish a set of measures for recruitment and career development that is specifically tailored to promising academic staff in all relevant positions, including PhDs
- Ensure that the expertise amassed through various centre-of-excellence schemes is safeguarded after the centres' lifetimes and helps to develop and renew UiO going forward
More energy in UiO's interaction with society
UiO is a strong local, regional and national powerhouse in a global knowledge society undergoing rapid change. We will enter into committed cooperation with other research and educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the business sector, and set clear regional, national and global goals for various cooperation agreements.
The university's third mission requires UiO to safeguard and advance its legitimacy and relevance through dynamic interplay with and integration into society. Contributing to solving society's challenges is, of course, a key part of UiO's social contract. In addition, the expertise, perspectives and issues that are found or expressed in society impact thinking and further development at UiO.
We will also actively cultivate UiO's interaction with external institutions and special interest groups by engaging with experts from across our knowledge society via more adjunct positions and their participation in our research and education projects.
Lastly, we will intensify UiO's interplay with society by developing new settings that respond to society's need for knowledge and UiO's expertise (faculty, staff and student). As a central knowledge institution, UiO must continue to answer to the general public's curiosity and society's need for knowledge through active dialogue via a wide range of communication channels. This engagement is founded on the principles of free and basic research, research-based teaching and the university as a bearer of culture. In addition, because UiO, as a research-intensive and comprehensive university, works in a global context, this commitment will not stop at local, regional or national boundaries.
Our main priorities:
- We will develop strategic partnerships with selected national and international knowledge institutions and organisations to
- promote our role as a strong knowledge hub
- increase the quality of education
- contribute more effectively to solving society's major challenges
- We will be a key driver in a cycle of innovation that strengthens the development of the Norwegian private and public sectors through consistent and clear forms of collaboration with the private sector, municipalities and the central government, as well as relevant NGOs and industry clusters
- We will develop an 'impact' concept with adequate indicators that will be used to broadly and actively communicate UiO's impact on society, in line with UiO's public profile and strengths
- We will further develop the UiO/Oslo University Hospital (OUS) alliance and thereby strengthen UiO's role
A comprehensive human resources policy
Motivated and knowledgeable staff and students are the university's most important resource. A comprehensive human resources policy that safeguards recruitment, skills and career development, and stimulating and supportive working and learning environments, must constitute the foundation of UiO's further development.
The university's resources and future opportunities are concentrated in the staff's competence, skills and knowledge. As the rectorate, we will pay a great deal of attention to our human resources and how they can be safeguarded and further developed. Good physical and psychological working and learning environments foster job satisfaction, quality of experience, creativity and innovative thinking. We will therefore place a great emphasis on improving internal interplay both face-to-face and through the effective use of digital tools.
Society's rapid change and development challenge all of us who work in research and higher education, and we intend to respond to this via a comprehensive human resources policy that is infused with UiO's basic values and informed by UiO's mission and a steady long-term vision for the future. A human resources policy is crucial to achieving the goal of improving interaction among all groups, units and levels at UiO. It will also determine the extent to which we succeed in developing external interactions with UiO stakeholders.
Our team will work to achieve a physical and psychological working and learning environment that clearly reflects UiO's strong academic values. We believe that a sound human resources policy must be based on trust, responsibility and generosity in order to promote free thought, job satisfaction and personal development.
The university needs to maintain a high tolerance for critical points of view. It needs staff and students who actively participate in the academic debate and in the public sphere. We therefore need to ensure the safety, co-determination and equality of all university staff, irrespective of gender, cultural or ethnic identity.
The most important goals we will actively pursue in the coming four-year period are career development for young, talented researchers and effective recruitment. The UiO community has recently been through an extensive debate as to whether its rectors should be elected or appointed, and there are different views on the issue in our team. Svein Stølen is a supporter of elected rectors. Our decision to put our names on the ballot is based on the University Board's decision that the rector and pro-rector shall be elected. As the rectorate, we will not initiate changes on this issue for the next four years.
Our main priorities:
- Implement a well-functioning and trustworthy recruitment policy that enhances UiO's attractiveness in a competitive global university market
- Review existing employment and pay practices, and ensure that teaching is meritorious
- Continue the commitment to leadership development at UiO, with special focus on research and education management
- Ensure systematic follow-up, including career guidance, for PhDs, postdocs and researchers that reflects the fact that the majority of them will find attractive jobs outside academia
- Reduce unwanted temporary positions through the creation of a modernised position structure that also contributes to internationally competitive research groups and improves UiO's possibility to succeed within thematic research programmes
- Build an inclusive culture that promotes interaction and community among different groups of employees and units in the organisation
Oslo: A university city
We will work to make the student and university city of Oslo more attractive. An active campus will be central to this effort. The aim is to facilitate an inclusive and inspiring working and learning environment, and well-functioning internal and external interaction.
UiO's location in the capital and close proximity to key institutions in one of the most knowledge-intensive regions in Europe represent key strengths and opportunities. With its breadth, expertise and international orientation, UiO is the Oslo region's bridgehead to the global knowledge pool. UiO is also a cultural power centre for the metropolitan area. Our team will act as a catalyst for ensuring that the region's overall skills are better aligned, utilised and translated into broadly defined value creation.
We will promote campus and urban development which is adapted to UiO's most important tasks and needs, and which simplifies and stimulates interaction between stakeholders in the region and in the university city of Oslo. Several new UiO construction projects are in development, and facilitating interdisciplinary processes and a good working and learning environment will be crucial to efforts to renew and strengthen UiO. At the same time, we will work diligently to obtain additional funding to ensure much-needed renovation of old buildings, some of which are listed by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage. This is particularly necessary to ensure a well-functioning and modern learning environment for students. We must also safeguard UiO's interests in regional development projects in which UiO does not play a primary role.
We will work to further develop Oslo's character as an attractive student and university city by building strong alliances with key regional partners. Through dynamic collaboration with student organisations, we will work towards the development of more student housing in Oslo. In cooperation with Oslo and the surrounding municipalities, we will work to ensure that we always have good arrangements for incoming international students and staff, including attending to the needs of their partners. We must do more to make use of links with the business community and public institutions in the metropolitan area. This is important to UiO's reputation as a cultural institution, UiO's research and innovation activities and UiO's efforts to improve education quality.
Our main priorities:
- Strengthen UiO's visibility and leading knowledge role in the region through better and more systematic accessibility to our expertise and infrastructure
- Be a strong driver and partner in the development of new building projects such as the Viking Age Museum, Life Sciences Building and new law and odontology buildings
- Enter into a close partnership with the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority to develop a new Oslo University Hospital (OUS) that safeguards UiO's interests
- Take an active role in the development of lower Blindern when several departments move to the Life Sciences Building, tentatively in 2023
- Work to convince the city of Oslo to consider student housing, the university environment and the business community in tandem with housing in urban development projects in the areas near the university; keywords include sustainable development, Adamstuen, Ullevål Hospital and Marienlyst post-NRK
- Strengthen cultural 'campus' activities and renew UiO's local, regional and national cultural role
Finally: The team has developed this platform in collaboration with many colleagues and students at UiO. We welcome your feedback and would like to hear what you think UiO should focus on in the future.
We look forward to a good campaign and a good election!
Gro, Åse, Per Morten og Svein