Look to Norway

On Friday, minister Tora Aasland put forward parliamentary report number 14 regarding the internationalization of education. The report deals with the Norwegian education system in a global perspective, and the minister wants more of a focus on student exchange programmes.

– The parliamentary report shows that Norway takes internationalization seriously. We are living in a globalized world, and an internationalization of our offer in terms of education is vital, Aasland says.

Language as a barrier

English as an academic language has been given a large amount of space in the report, and a range of courses in English is also presented as a solution to help Norway attract more international students.

However, not much space is dedicated to the need for Norwegian training in the 85 page report. «We have registered that there is a need for Norwegian training for students and staff who will be staying in Norway for a longer period of time» on page 59 of the report is the only place in which this is explicitly mentioned.

Is the organization of an English language offer more important than improving the range of Norwegian language training courses?

– The Norwegian language can be a barrier when it comes to attracting international students. Norwegian language training will also be part of the strategy to make Norwegian educational institutions more attractive, but in many cases a range of courses in English can be a good solution.

UiO has complained that they lack the funds needed to increase the capacities of their Norwegian courses, could allotting more funds be a possibility?

– Insufficient language training should not be a problem. My responsibility is to set limits, and that includes financial limits. Increased funds may be a possibility, but the institutions themselves are largely free to make their own rules and to prioritize how these funds are spent. Therefore, a lot of the responsibility lies with the institutions, but it is of course my responsibility to set suitable financial conditions.

Last week Universitas reported that the University of Oslo (UiO) has chosen not to prioritize Norwegian courses for international students who come to UiO independently, rather than through an exchange programme. Leader of the National Union of Students in Norway (NSU), Ingvild Reymert, believes that the main problem with the parliamentary report is the lack of a concrete promise of funding.

– If you wish to reach goals and carry out measures, you must back it up with funding. This has been our main criticism of the internationalization report.

Reymert emphasizes that internationalization is about more than everyone simply being able to write in English, and that it is important that everyone who comes to Norway should be offered a course in Norwegian.

English for everyone

«Norwegian educational institutions are to become more attractive to foreign students», the parliamentary report states. The Faculty of Medicine has been presented as a prime example of how this can be done. Professor Borghild Roald, academic international coordinator at the Faculty of Medicine at UiO, explains that the ninth semester is specially adapted for the inclusion of international students. All teaching and learning material is in English, and it is a goal that a third of students should be international students.

– The biggest barrier for this project is the Norwegian language. In order to make the project work, we have arranged for the teaching to be carried out in English. This is a set up that suits international students at the same time as it gives the Norwegian students valuable experience. English is an international technical language within medicine, and it is important that Norwegian students should be accustomed to using the language that they will encounter at seminars and international conferences later.

– English not a threat

In the autumn of 2008, Universitas wrote about the language report, a parliamentary report that dealt with among other things the heavy English pressure on Norwegian as an academic language. Tora Aasland was chair of the board at the Norwegian Language Council from 2006 band until she became a minister in the autumn of 2007. She does not think that English within academia should be a threat to the Norwegian language. The minister does not agree that the internationalization report is at odds with the language report.

Isn’t the increased foothold of English within academia a threat to the Norwegian language?

– We do not want English to come at the expense of Norwegian, but rather as a valuable addition. The Norwegian Language Council is completely in line with the core idea of all thoughts on internationalization; one should be secure in one’s own language and identity, at the same time as one is open to English. Being well-skilled in English need not mean that one gets any worse in Norwegian. This report does not deal with the Norwegian language, it deals with internationalization. It must be possible to have two thoughts in one’s head at the same time, and I see no conflict whatsoever between those two reports. The institutions must have a strategy for how they can take both into consideration.

Sylfest Lomheim, director of the Norwegian Language Council, believes that universities must have a strategy for how they can take responsibility for Norwegian as an academic language, at the same time as they assert themselves internationally.

– If they cannot handle these two tasks, then they are not worthy of being called a university, Lomheim emphasizes.

Dag Simonsen, philologist at the Norwegian Language Council, stated in Universitas three weeks ago that the Norwegian language is at risk within academia, especially in research publications.

«When it comes to publishing research, especially within the social sciences, there has been marked increase in publications in English, at the expense of Norwegian », he said at the time. According to Simonsen, there has been «an increase in the access to master’s programmes in English, without anybody having an overview of this development. The Norwegian language Council hopes to map out the motives, and see whether the use of English is justified, or whether this is merely about marketing the universities.»