Few webpages translated

Despite the fact that they are representing thousands of international students, neither the student welfare body Velferdstinget (VT), nor the Student Parliament (SP) have translated their web pages into English. The same goes for several of the student bodies at the various faculties and educational establishments around Oslo, such as the student committees at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, the Norwegian Academy of Music, the Norwegian School of Sport Science and the MF Norwegian School of Theology.

Only a few goes clear. Among the ones who have English versions of their web pages are BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and the student committees at the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

President of the International Students’ Union (ISU) in Oslo, Ricardo Duque stresses that this is unacceptable.

– This is a problem for the student democracy. International students who do not speak Norwegian are excluded. This means that there are 3000 students who are unable to get hold of important information. How can the international students become integrated if they don’t receive information about the things that concern them, Duque asks.

– Embarrassing

According to Duque, this is not the first time there has been a lack of information from SP to international students.

– During the election last year, the Student Parliament sent out an email to the student population with information on the student parliament election, but they forgot to translate it into English, Duque says.

Nevertheless, Duque believes that the reason for this is a lack of resources, and not a lack of good intentions.

VT apologises profusely, and promises that they are currently working on new web pages.

– We are very sorry that we don’t have any information in English at the moment, but we hope that our new web pages will be complete and on-line after Easter, says Lene Bergseth, Information Officer at Velferdstinget.

The Student Parliament is also making promises:

– We are aware that we come across as having double standards here. We are constantly pushing UiO to think about the international students and then we don’t offer any information in English ourselves. We promise to do something about this, says Ole André Gjerde, Executive for international affairs in SP.

Has promised before

However, this is not the first time SP has made promises to change for the better. Two years ago they said they would better the information to international students, but so far nothing has happened. Gjerde admits that the standard of the web pages has been too low for some time.

Now he promises to take action – in only two weeks!

– In connection to the election we plan to come up with a temporary solution to make sure that there is enough information in English. In the long run, we hope to get new web pages connected to UiO’s domain. The situation at the moment is intolerable, Gjerde stresses.

Ricardo Duque also draws attention to another problem – internet pages that are only partially translated into English. As an example he points to the pages of the Foundation for Student Life in Oslo where several elements are translated, while the menu is still in Norwegian.

– When the web pages are translated, they are often changed and shortened. This is a problem. Even though a lot of the most relevant web pages have been translated, a lot has been left out during the process, he says and adds:

– Fortunately, I have learned to speak Norwegian, but most of the international students do not always master the language very well. Thus, the communication of information must become much better, he says.