Today, the Faculty of Humanities (HF) has 16 one-year programmes, 32 bachelor’s programmes and 40 master’s programmes. Approximately 1,000 courses are offered each year. Nearly 200 courses have fewer than 10 active students.
As part of the annual and ongoing process concerning the study programme portfolio, the faculty has now planned a more comprehensive assessment of the study programmes. We have held a joint meeting with all the departments. As a knowledge base for the meeting, a report has been prepared based on five selected indicators: output, productivity, net contribution, demand and completion.
The Faculty Board will be briefed on the report on 17 April (in Norwegian)
What challenges do we see?
The faculty’s work on the study programme portfolio must relate to the framework conditions in the sector. For the sector as a whole, we know that we will have fewer students in the coming years because of smaller age cohorts. The government has made it clear that they will not increase funding going forward, and we have become heavily dependent on external funding.
The report shows that, overall, the Faculty of Humanities does not have good enough levels of student recruitment, completion rates and credit (ECTS) production. Some of our study programmes are of course doing very well, but the report shows that the programme portfolio as a whole is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term. Forecasts show that we will not be able to replace all staff departures, and thus we will not be able to maintain the level of activity we have today.
“We are going to maintain a strong and broad humanities field, which is why we wanted such a comprehensive review of the portfolio. Based on this review, we must then discuss the way forward. The faculty now has a golden opportunity to take action while we still have room to manoeuvre,” says Dean Frode Helland.
Annual joint meeting and knowledge base
The first joint meeting took place on 8 April. Heads of department and studies, both academic and administrative, from all departments at HF participated, together with the faculty management and staff from the faculty administration.
As a basis for discussion for the meeting, a working group appointed by the dean has prepared a report (PDF - in Norwegian) to be used as a starting point for strategic discussions at the faculty and the departments going forward.
The report shows that the faculty is dependent on a smaller number of subject areas in order to maintain its income. This makes the faculty vulnerable, as we see that recruitment in general is declining.
“It is important to emphasise that the report is a knowledge base, not a recommendation for specific measures or cuts,” says the dean.
The faculty is aware of the limitations of the report. For example, it does not measure the quality of education or labour market relevance. Nor does it take into account considerations of academic strategy and more qualitative assessments.
The faculty and the departments will continue this discussion throughout the year and in the further work on the programme portfolio.