This text has been translated from Norwegian with the assistance of GPT UiO.
The Faculty Board is the faculty’s highest decision-making body and meets four times a year.
Centre policy for the Faculty of Social Sciences
At its March 2024 meeting, the Faculty Board decided to develop a centre policy for the faculty. External board member Troels Østergaard Sørensen chaired a working group that delivered its report in May 2025. The report was presented for information in June 2025, and the draft centre policy was discussed by the Faculty Board in September and December last year.
The centre policy is intended as a supplement to the ordinary regulations for the organisation of the faculty and its subordinate units, and will apply to disciplinary or interdisciplinary units that are established for a fixed term. It will apply to units whose purpose is to promote research or other objectives within specific, typically more narrowly defined, thematic areas, and which will normally be financed mainly by external funding.
The Faculty Board adopted the centre policy with a few minor amendments.
A proposal for the centre policy can be read in Norwegian here, and the final version will be available once the minutes from the March meeting of the Faculty Board have been approved.
New bachelor’s programme at TIK
TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture has applied to establish a new English-language bachelor’s programme entitled – Technology, innovation and society. The programme is intended to support some of the University of Oslo’s efforts on internationalisation, and TIK has received a total of NOK 4.5 million in seed funding to develop the bachelor’s programme and the innovation certificate. However, these funds will not be able to sustain the programme in the long term, and there is currently insufficient basic funding to cover the costs of running the programme.
— The Faculty Board felt that TIK’s initiative was a good one, and offered a range of suggestions on how the application could be made even stronger. This related, among other things, to clear agreements on courses to be delivered by units other than TIK, explains Dean Anne Julie Semb.
The Faculty Board decided to postpone the matter and welcomes TIK to submit a revised application.
SAI to return to elected leadership
At the previous election for head of department at the Department of Social Anthropology, it was not possible to elect a head from among the department’s staff. As a result, the department has had an appointed head in recent years. During the period with an appointed head, the department has reduced its surplus in hours accounting, and a revision of the study programmes has improved the workload related to teaching. The department now wishes to return to the scheme of elected leadership.
The Faculty Board approved the proposal to return to elected leadership from the next head-of-department period. The University Board has the final say on the decision, and the matter will be forwarded to it for consideration.
Accounts for 2025
The Faculty of Social Sciences has historically had a relatively large surplus (referred to as – accumulated underspending). This has changed over the past three years, and the same trend also applies to the basic units. The Department of Social Anthropology in particular is in a challenging situation and is being followed up very closely by the faculty.
In line with signals from central University of Oslo management, the surplus is being reduced at a cautious pace. This prudence is partly due to the fact that allocations to the sector are not increasing in step with wage developments.
Recruitment and research infrastructure strategy
The Faculty Board also discussed developments in recruitment to academic positions (in Norwegian) at the faculty in 2025. The Board would like to see a similar presentation on developments in administrative positions.
The revised research infrastructure strategy (in Norwegian) was presented to, and discussed by, the Faculty Board. The work was praised for its thoroughness, and for addressing the rapid social and technological developments that have taken place in recent years.