Tired of beeing kept on the outside

– Liberal Liste is an independent political party for medicine students, so the voices of medicine students will be heard, said the top candidate of the party, Erling Hillestad.

He wants the students at The faculty of medicine to be more included in student life and student politics at the university.

– Medicine students are often kept somewhat on the outside because we’re located at Gaustad and not at Blindern. This is reflected through fewer assortments in the cafeterias, absence of student goodie bags at the semesters start, and massive under-representation in the different boards and comities at the university, among other things.

A near miss

Liberal Liste entered late into this year’s election, due to a misunderstanding.

– The person responsible for the election lists at the Student Parliament thought we were a part of Moderat Gruppe (The centre-right coalition), because Sten Mc Neil Ånnerud from that party brought in the lists. We are, however, a party of our own, and consider us more social liberal. We also want to be independent of the other student parties to be able to better represent the interests of the medicine students.

Better financing of studies

According to Hillestad, student financing’s a very present topic at The faculty of medicine.

– For the students having their exams in late June, it’s very unfortunate that the last scholarship and loan payment comes in the middle May. It’s a big problem that needs to be dealt with, especially for students on a program this comprehensive. The Student Parliament has to be tougher with the government, but we fear that Sosialdemokratene (the social democrats) as the biggest party in the parliament is too much on the same side as the government, and not the students, in this issue.

Wants feedback

Libera Liste also wants better feedback and follow-up from the faculty.

– Studying medicine features a lot of mandatory chords, both practical and problem based teaching. A survey from 2005 showed that student at medicine miss follow-ups in relation to this. Grading with numbers has been introduced supplementing pass/fail, without it being helpful at all. For the students it’s impossible to know how they are doing with their studies, despite good contact with guidance counselors. We need critical feedback to help us improve during the study, not only on a piece of paper in the end of the year, Hillestad said.