This text has been translated from Norwegian with the assistance of GPT UiO.
Each year, around 20 May, the Faculty’s leaders – both academic and administrative – meet at Tøyen Hovedgård and the beautiful Botanical Garden for a leadership seminar. The purpose of the seminar is to discuss issues of shared interest, with a particular focus on study programmes. A key item on the agenda is the Vice-Dean for Studies’ review – almost down to the smallest detail – of the Faculty’s study portfolio.
Tora’s review at this year’s seminar shows that the Faculty of Social Sciences’ study portfolio is in good shape. In general, recruitment is very strong, characterised by fierce competition for places on many of our programmes. The clinical programme in psychology recruits particularly well and helps pull up the average, but we are by no means dependent on a single programme to attract students to the Faculty. There are many programmes at both bachelor’s and master’s level where admission requires grades at the very top of the scale.
Once admitted to their programmes, our students also work quite diligently. On average, students at the Faculty of Social Sciences complete about 47 credits per year (per full-time student). This is below the norm of 60, but we compare quite favourably with the other faculties at the University of Oslo. At the specialised professional faculties, such as Medicine, Law and Dentistry, a higher proportion of students follow the standard study progression. This is also true for students in the clinical programme in psychology at our own Faculty, but the other programmes are not very far behind. At the Faculty of Social Sciences we are seeing a positive development: we are enrolling more students, and each student is completing an increasing number of credits.
Students’ efforts during their studies are also reflected in how many of them complete their programmes and obtain the degree they set out to achieve. If we leave aside the smaller 1.5-year and 5-year master’s programmes, a little over half of the students on bachelor’s programmes, 2-year master’s programmes and the clinical programme in psychology complete their degrees within the standard time. If we add an extra period equivalent to 50 per cent of the nominal length of study (that is, an additional three semesters for a bachelor’s degree, two semesters for a master’s degree and six semesters for the professional psychology programme), the average completion rate rises to almost 70 per cent. We believe there are many reasons for delays, such as the need to work part-time alongside one’s studies and the fact that many students are in a life phase in which some are settling down and having children.
The good work that all staff at the Faculty put into managing our programme portfolio is crucial – not only for our students, who receive a high-quality education, but also for the Faculty’s finances. Strategy 2030 states that “the Faculty shall ensure that, at all times, its overall teaching activities represent the best possible use of the Faculty’s resources”.
In working towards this goal, we have in recent years focused on the fill rate of our study programmes. Our aim is for the admission quota in each programme to be fully filled at the start of the academic year. Under the new funding model, the Faculty receives NOK 56,600 per 60-credit unit, i.e. for one year of full-time study. A bachelor’s degree corresponds to 180 credits (three 60-credit units) and represents performance-based income of around NOK 169,800 (56,600 × 3). Each unfilled place within a programme’s admission quota at the start of the semester therefore represents a potential loss of income for the Faculty (and for the department that owns the programme).
At the start of the 2023 autumn semester, we had a total of 79 unfilled places: 14 at bachelor’s level, 3 on 5-year master’s programmes and 62 on 2-year master’s programmes. When filled, these places correspond to around 180 60-credit units. Roughly calculated, these unused places represent a potential performance-based income loss of just over NOK 10 million. It is unlikely that all of these places would have resulted in completed degrees, but the calculation nevertheless illustrates that a large number of unfilled places at the beginning of the academic year can mean a substantial financial loss for the Faculty. Since the 2023 admissions round, all units have done a tremendous job, both in adjusting the size of their programmes and in the admissions process itself, to ensure a more efficient use of our study places. By the start of the 2025 academic year, we had reduced the number of unfilled places within the admission quotas to 17.
Unfortunately, it appears that we must prepare for tighter financial conditions, both in the short and long term. The real value of public funding for our activities will be 7 per cent lower in 2025 than it was in 2019. With completed credits as one of very few sources of performance-based public income, we must maintain a sharp focus on the Faculty’s programme portfolio, supported by precise and reliable data, in order to make good choices and set sound priorities when determining the size and composition of our study programmes. This will be an important task for our Faculty Board now and in the years ahead.
At the Faculty of Social Sciences, we have capable students who arrive with excellent results from upper secondary school. We have socially relevant programmes that provide high-quality education. And every year we send skilled and competent young people out into society, ready to perform important public and private sector tasks and to contribute to social innovation and competence development in the organisations where they end up. This gives us an excellent foundation for continuing to manage our resources well, especially in times of tighter budgets.