SFB-students allowed to stay
The decision is in: SFB-students are allowed to continue their studies at UiO.
– It is fantastic that the Senate ruled in favour of us against Rector and the Administration, says a happy Torkel Nybakk Kvaal, second chair of the Student Parliament.
As Universitas reported earlier, the Department of Student and Academic Affairs tabled a proposal regarding the exclusion of self-providing Bachelor students (SFB-students) from UiO. They are international students who pay for their studies out of their own pockets. UiO stated earlier that the free Norwegian course they are offered and the administrative strain of matriculating these students result in too large costs. The Student Parliament has campaigned to keep these students who are regarded as valuable assets to UiO.
– They are, for instance, part of the student democracy, Nybakk Kvaal says.
He thinks the most important argument to keep the SFB-students is their significance to other international students.
– As opposed to other international students, they spend four consecutive years at UiO and create forums for Norwegian and international students, Nybakk Kvaal says.
This Thursday, the Senate were discussing for more than an hour before the students at last got the better of them. The future of the SFB-students could have gone either way: six voted in favour, and five were against.
– We got all the Senate representatives from the University’s academic community, except Rector and Informatics Professor Nils Damm Christophersen, Nybakk Kvaal says.
He feels it is a vote of confidence that the majority of the Senate voted the Student Parliament’s way. And together with the vote from the editor of Samtiden (a Norwegian periodical) Cathrine Sandnes, the battle over the SFB-students was finally over. Nybakk Kvaal is very pleased.
– The debate over the SFB-students cannot be reopened before we get a new Rector, he says.
Another happy camper is Ricardo Duque who is president of International Student Union Oslo.
– The outcome is a victory to us, Duque applauds.
The International Student Union Oslo joined the Student Parliament in helping SFB-students to prevail.
– In the future, I think the Department of Student and Academic Affairs will include us in the debate at an earlier stage. The outcome of this issue has certainly proved that from now on students' opinions need to be taken seriously, Duque says.
Thus, UiO will have to cover Norwegian courses for the self-providing international Bachelor students.
