Ola Borten Moe is the new Minister for Research and Higher Education in the new government. The government’s declaration contains some expected changes in direction. The controversial efficiency cuts (ABE reform) in the public sector will be removed, and a so-called trust reform will be introduced. In addition, the government has announced a major investment in education throughout the country. It will also investigate whether the parliament should be able to stop the shutting down of campuses and the winding up of professional subjects instead of this just being left to the university boards.
‘This leads the way to a politicisation of management, and that’s a dangerous path,’ says rector at the University of Oslo, Svein Stølen.
Curt Rice, rector at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, reminds the government that they have already declared their intention to protect academic freedom, ‘but making policy out of professional decisions is anything but that.’
