Not recommended

– I have heard that students who have developed a good relationship with their professors can write their own letters of recommendation and have them signed. But if you are just yet another student in political science such as me, you tend to blend in with the crowd, says Kjersti Lie, a second year political science student at the University of Oslo (UiO).

At the moment, there is no consistent praxis with respect to letters of recommendation at UiO.

This is something Lie finds very unfair. She is one of the many students considering taking a Master’s degree abroad, and for that she will need a personal letter of recommendation.

Ingvild Brox Kielland, President of the student council at the Faculty of Social Sciences states that a lot of students finds it very difficult to get in touch with their professors in order to have these letters written for them.

– Students who don’t stand out in class, who have no connections and aren’t involved in any voluntary organisation have a much harder time getting hold of personal letters of recommendations, she says.

Offer a general letter

Anders Fjelland Bentsen, President of the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA), confirms that it is common praxis for universities in both the USA and the UK to require one or more personal letters of recommendations from the students’ home university before accepting the students.

– In cases where the educational establishments in Norway are unaware of this praxis, students who want go abroad will see this as yet another bureaucratic obstacle to student exchange, he says.

Many of the faculties at UiO have composed a so-called «general» letter of recommendation to overcome the problem. According to Hanne-Gerd Nielsen, advisor at the International Education Office (SiS) at UiO, the letter aims to explain the academic institutions abroad how the Norwegian system works and why personal letters of recommendations are uncommon. Nielsen is satisfied with the arrangement.

– I have never heard of this preventing any student from being accepted abroad, she says.

Still, Fjelland Bentsen emphasises that many academic institutions abroad demand two academic recommendations, as well as a letter of reference written by someone who knows the student in another relevant way.

– Handicapped

One professor who has decided to write letters of recommendations for her students, is Janne Haaland Matlary, professor at the Department of Political Science and course coordinator at the Bachelor Program in International Studies at UiO. She does not believe that the standardised letter of recommendation the university offers the students is enough.

– The way I see it, students who don’t have something like this to show to will be at a disadvantage. This is the only way. We can’t change this praxis from Norway, she stresses.

Matlary still thinks that the praxis is unnecessary, as the letters of recommendations usually are all alike. At the same time, she emphasises how important these letters are to a Norwegian student.

– We have to realise that we are competing in a globalised world where this is a part of the way things are done. Our job is to provide favourable conditions that will enable our students to go abroad and compete internationally, she adds.

Decline

After the Quality Reform, one of the main goals for the Universities in Norway have been to increase internationalisation. During the period of 2006-2007, 937 students from UiO went on student exchange.

According to the Norwegian State Education Loan Fund (Lånekassen), there were 5040 full-time students taking a Master’s degree abroad during the same period, a decline of 13 per cent since 2004. In the UK, the number of full-time students at Master’s level was down to 545 and in the USA 248 – a decline of 21 and 15 per cent respectively.