Norwegian university college reform
reorganization of colleges in Norway
The University college reform was a reform throughout Norway where 98 smaller colleges were transformed into 26 larger university colleges on 1 August 1994. In addition a number of fine art educations were merged to two National Academies of the Arts, in Oslo and in Bergen.
Goal and result
The reform gave each county their own university college, except for the two Agder counties, who shared one. Some counties have more than one, with Møre og Romsdal and Nordland topping with three each. The university colleges were given the main responsibility for training nurses, teachers, preschool teachers, engineers and business administrators. In addition a number of other tasks were included in the colleges portfolio.
The goal of the reform, that was initiated by the then Minister of Education, Gudmund Hernes from the Labour Party, was to effectivate the operations at the colleges through economy of scale. Herned had led the public committee that in 1988 had launched the idea of merging and co locating the colleges. The idea was to use teaching resources dedicated to academic administration instead to be used for teaching and research.
An evaluation of the reform after five years concluded that reform had not succeeded and that the resulting more efficient operations came from lower state subsidies instead of more efficient operations.
“Norwegian university college reform” enters the record as reorganization of colleges in Norway. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Norwegian, university and college can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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