Every year, a wide range of academic prizes are awarded in Norway, for example the Holberg Prize, the Nils Klim Prize, Anders Jahre’s Award, the Olav Thon Foundation’s Prize, and the Fridtjof Nansen Reward for Outstanding Research, to mention just a few. The University of Oslo (UiO) also knows how to value its staff and students, and annually awards prizes for outstanding contributions in research, education, dissemination, innovation, an award for young researchers, His Majesty The King’s Gold Medal for the best doctoral thesis or other scientific work assessed at UiO, as well as UiO’s Sustainability Award for the three best master’s theses at UiO on sustainability-related topics.
There can be many reasons for awarding prizes. The most important is surely the desire to reward and publicly recognise staff and students who have made an exceptional effort and achieved results beyond the ordinary. Prestige and positive publicity are also important motivating factors. UiO’s prizes receive good media coverage and considerable attention both when they are announced and when they are awarded, to the benefit of both UiO and those who are nominated for, and receive, these prestigious distinctions.
For many academic awards, dedicated committees are established with responsibility for nominating suitable candidates. For some major awards, however, the nomination process is very open. This is particularly true of UiO’s own awards, where the faculties are formally responsible for nominating candidates—sometimes in a specified order—which in practice means that anyone can propose candidates for the prizes to be awarded. This also applies to the important Educational Quality Award for Higher Education handed out annually by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, which comes with NOK 1 million in award money.
Academic awards often come as a pleasant surprise, a source of honour for those who receive them, and a mark of prestige and recognition for their employer. But academic awards can also be viewed from a more strategic perspective, without diminishing the value of the recognition they represent. Nominations for The Educational Quality Award for Higher Education, for example, are often described as applications rather than nominations. If you are working on an exciting development project in teaching, a submission or nomination for The Educational Quality Award for Higher Education or UiO’s education award might be one of the goals you set for the project.
Preparing nominations is time-consuming; substantial documentation must be submitted, and this is not always readily available shortly before the deadline. However, many awards follow a fixed annual cycle, with nomination deadlines at roughly the same time each year. If you adopt nomination as an ambitious target for a project—whether in research, education or another area—documentation can be collected along the way, making the nomination process itself less demanding.
It is important to nominate candidates for academic awards and to give priority to such nominations in a busy working day. For the individual, an award is associated with recognition, motivation, and inspiration for new ideas and further effort. For the department, faculty and UiO as a whole, every award brings public attention and showcases the high quality of the work carried out here.
Prizes awarded to students are no less important. At the Faculty of Social Sciences (SV) we also have our own award. The “Våg å vite” Prize is awarded annually to four master’s theses that are not only of high academic quality, but in which the student demonstrates independence, critical thinking, and, above all, the courage to challenge established truths in society. This award represents valuable recognition for the students who receive it, for the units they belong to, and for the faculty. It showcases, in an excellent way, the talented students we have at our faculty and the importance of the social sciences for critical thinking and bold research—qualities that have rarely been more important than they are today.
At a time when competition for students is becoming ever fiercer, nominations of both staff and students for prestigious awards are a powerful form of recognition for award-winners and their units. Nominations are also a strategic opportunity to present ourselves to the outside world—an opportunity we should not let pass. Establishing a routine for preparing nominations throughout the year will reduce the workload.
The first opportunity to put a new nomination routine into practice comes with the nomination of candidates for the “Våg å vite” Award in September. If you know, or supervise, a talented student who has the courage to challenge established truths, now is the time to start drafting the nomination text. And while you are at it, do consider adding nominations for the UiO awards to your agenda as well.