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Happy New Year 2023!

The new Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo welcomes you to a new year with new challenges and opportunities. She invites us all to the semester kick-off on Wednesday, 18 January in the Large Auditorium at the Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet.

Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo
Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo. Photo: Ine Eriksen, UiO

Dear staff and students of the Faculty of Medicine

We now face a new year with new challenges and new opportunities. It is a pleasure and honour for me as the new Dean, and the rest of the new dean's office, to take over the management of the Faculty of Medicine here at the University of Oslo. We ran for election with great commitment to the vision "Outstanding and innovative research and education for the benefit of the individual and society", and we look forward to working with all of you to fulfil this vision.

So who am I, who assumes such a deanship, rather than continuing to work on my own subject and research? I am a doctor and professor of neurology with experience from many areas, both within subjects, teaching, research, organisational work and management, locally, nationally and internationally. I am ready to "take one for the team" together with my committed and friendly team. Together, we have broad experience and expertise from various disciplines, and we represent all three major departments at the faculty. Together with the administration, departments and other units at the faculty, we look forward to embarking on this work.

We will continue building on all the good work that previous deans have done at the faculty. This has given the faculty a strong position and an important role in Norwegian society and has made us an important partner for other organisations and people both nationally and internationally. This has given the faculty a strong position and an important role in Norwegian society and made us an important partner for other organizations and people both nationally and internationally. Perhaps the greatest health challenges of recent years can be summed up in the words - "conflict, climate, covid". Our work must also include sustainability and balance in academia. Working with current health and societal challenges is an important part of our mission.

For the coming four-year period, we have set out some overall goals for our work. The first is to strengthen the faculty as an outstanding place of study and a leading research institution and social actor. The second is to further develop the faculty in line with new knowledge and society's needs, both nationally and internationally. The third is to improve organisation and ensure good interaction with units, employees, students and other partners.

My team and I will use some simple tools in this work, as we described during the elections. We will work to ensure that the faculty is visible, both within the organisation and externally to the general population and our partners. We will involve and collaborate internally and externally, and we will make provision for more staff and students to become involved in the development and management of the faculty. On this basis, we will make decisions that are then implemented and then evaluated.

In order for this to be successful, we need the help of all of you. Get involved and join as an active player. It is we as a team, staff and students in unison, who will further develop the faculty in the years to come. Talk to your employees, students, teacher and/or manager about what you are passionate about, and give good input to our common mission!

Inviting everyone to semester kick-off

As literally a "kick-start", we invite everyone to the "Semester kick-off" in the Large Auditorium at the Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, 18 January with subsequent mingling, discussions, choral singing and serving finger food with refreshments in the student canteen at Domus Medica. Hope you find time to stop by for all or part of the event, which lasts until 6:00 pm. Most of the presentations are held in Norwegian. If your Norwegian isn't perfect yet, maybe you can ally yourself with a colleague who can translate? Or come directly to the social part with mingling and choral singing in Domus Medica.

A selection of the faculty's "stars" are invited to give short presentations that will be of interest to everyone. The meeting will also be transmitted digitally. However, it would pleasant to meet as many people as possible, so everyone who has the opportunity to attend is welcome. And if such an event is to your taste, perhaps we should hold such a "kick-off" at the start of each semester?

Welcome to a new year

With this, I wish you welcome to a new year, a new semester, new challenges and a lot of opportunities. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in the future!

Yours sincerely, Hanne

By dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo
Published Jan. 13, 2023 3:37 PM - Last modified Feb. 3, 2023 1:36 AM