OsloMet welcomes Ukrainian refugees
OsloMet has several offers for Ukrainian refugees who are now coming to Norway. The offers include language courses, study programmes in English and complementary study programmes.
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research has asked all universities and colleges to activate relevant offers for refugees from Ukraine.
“OsloMet is doing what we can to receive and take care of refugees from the cruel war in Ukraine,” says Rector Christen Krogh.
“We have already worked purposefully for several years with the inclusion of refugees in higher education, especially through the Academic dugnad for refugees, and we are now ready to receive more refugees,” explains Krogh.
Academic dugnad (oslomet.no) is run by employees and students at OsloMet and will help to include and integrate refugees into Norwegian society.
They organise language courses in Norwegian and English, an academic language café in collaboration with students, and courses for CV writing and job hunting. They also have social activities throughout the year.
Academic dugnad has a well-established collaboration with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (Nav), adult education and other institutions.
Other measures from OsloMet:
- Complementary study programmes
On request from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, OsloMet has developed a complementary educational offer for refugees and asylum seekers within nursing, teaching, science, and technology. Priority is given to qualified applicants with an refugee background. Applicants must satisfy specific academic and language requirements. - Increased capacity for the bilingual test – Norwegian and Ukrainian
OsloMet tests candidates who want to be interpreters in Ukrainian, to help ensure that Norway can take care of the refugees in a good way. Efforts are also being made to initiate interpreting education in Ukrainian. - National Centre for Multicultural Education (NAFO)
NAFO is part of the Faculty of Teacher Education and International Studies at OsloMet, and is now working on various measures, such as developing and translating teaching materials and resources into Ukrainian, developing Ukrainian at Skolekassa, and developing resources and competence measures for teachers who work with newly arrived students. - Increasing student enrolment
In addition, OsloMet is increasing enrolment in our English-language courses and master's programmes with study places reserved for Ukrainian refugees. Steps have already been taken to make extra space in existing study programmes, and this work will continue throughout the spring.
Measures for students at OsloMet
OsloMet has 14 students registered with Ukrainian citizenship, 41 with Russian and three with Belarusian. The university is now taking care of these, together with employees with a background from the same countries.
“We do what we can to support and care for our students and staff with backgrounds from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Everyone is suffering from the war, as it is exclusively the Russian authorities that are behind it. Students and staff from Russia and Belarus have no responsibility for what is happening now,” says Krogh.
OsloMet has initiated several measures for employees and students:
- Gatherings both for Ukrainian students, and for all students and staff affected by the war.
- Providing student mentors who are dedicated to an academic follow-up of the student group affected by the war.
- The Department of Early Childhood Education will offer events for refugee children and their mothers.
