Rector summarizes February
Rector Christen Krogh summarizes activities, work and impressions from February
Dear colleagues,
The shortest month of the year has come and gone. In the board meeting on 9 February, the board appointed Silje Fekjær as vice-rector for education for the next four years. Congratulations to both OsloMet and Silje. Silje has been has already worked in the position for several periods already. February also contained recruitment for the positions of vice-rector for research and development, vice-rector for social improvements and cooperation, manager for SVA, and dean of the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design. All these processes are to be completed in March in the university's board meeting.
Diversity is one of OsloMet's core values. It was therefore both natural and important that we celebrated the Sami's national day with speeches, music and lectures about Sami film and culture. The Sami are an indigenous people, and the rights of indigenous peoples have been central to the demonstrations against the Fosen development. Here, Oslo has been the seat of the sharpest marking of rights since the Alta case. At OsloMet, we are concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples. The fact that the case also involves issues related to green power production and intervention in nature, in a period of high electricity prices gives us a clue as to what dilemmas we will face in the future.
In February, the Health Personnel Commission submitted its report to Ingvild Kjerkol, Minister for Health and Care, and Ola Borten Moe, Minister for Research and Higher Education. The Health Personnel Commission points out that Norway has a healthcare system with a very large number of employees per inhabitant, and that it is not practically possible to increase staffing in line with the needs of an aging population. In order to solve the challenges, they suggest, among other things, that the health professions must become better at dividing tasks among themselves. The report is important for OsloMet's healthcare education and in line with ongoing work with interprofessional practice in the healthcare sector.
On February 24, it was one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Many of our professional communities, and especially NIBR at SVA, are engaged in assisting and maintaining professional contact with Ukrainian communities. Thanks to all of you involved in this.
This month we had another joint management meeting across all units at OsloMet. An important purpose of these gatherings is to develop the university's future strategy. At the last meeting, we discussed these four future societal challenges, and how our university will meet them:
- conflict and economic uncertainty
- the sustainability of the welfare state
- trust, citizenship, diversity and democracy
- climate, sustainability and natural resources
After the meeting, I sent an invitation to faculties and centers to give their thoughts about what should be OsloMet's obligations related to each of the four societal challenges. The challenges are future-oriented, while we can also feel them today. The war in Ukraine is an example of a societal challenge that involves conflict and economic uncertainty. The Health Personnel Commission discusses the welfare state's sustainability in the health area. The ongoing human rights violation in Fosen deals with trust, citizenship, diversity and democracy, in addition to the fact that it contains issues related to climate, sustainability and natural resources. I look forward to read the faculties' and centres' views on how our missions within education and research will be affected by, and influence society's response to, these challenges.
Strategy is about taking a long perspective, but much of the work at the university is of course about what happens in the short term. For my own part, I have been with the Department of Built Environment and signed a collaboration agreement with OBOS. OBOS is concerned that the Oslo region should become Norway's technology centre, and so are we. In addition, I have met representatives of interest groups in our local area, with a particular focus on Romerike, including the Education Association, the Nurses' Association, NHO Viken and LO Oslo and Akershus. We all agree that it is a good idea to educate more students in Romerike in line with OsloMet's input to the state budget that we submitted last year.
We also worked with campus development in Pilestredet in February. After an extensive process, it was decided that the Department of Art, Design and Drama will move into P52. Bringing together all og OsloMets art fields will provide some interesting opportunities. In that process, Romerike was also assessed as a real alternative, but consideration of the subject's uniqueness, and synergies with other environments in Pilestredet, made P52 the best option.
That was February. Now we are in March. I wish everyone a good month!
Greetings Christen
