Letter to the editor on UiS´ study portfolio

On July 27th a Letter to the editor written by Torfinn Ingeborgrud (member of Stavanger city council for the Green party) and me was published in the Norwegian regional daily newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad. The text was titled "Tid for grønnere studieportefølje" [Time for a greener study portfolio]. I signed as Associate professor in philosophy at University of Stavanger.

UiS board meeting: Reports and plans; study portfolio development; plagiarism

Last Thursday I attended the board meeting of the University of Stavanger (UiS), the second board meeting this year. Issues discussed included reporting for 2012 and plans for 2013 (to the Ministry of Education and Research, which is the owner of UiS) and development of the study portfolio. In the latter case the university director did not get the board's explicit approval to implement seven measures aiming at centralising the management of the study portfolio (though several of them have broad support and will and should be carried out). I was part of presenting alternative proposals for decisions in both cases; the first, proposed with Fredrik Skår (representative for permanent administrative staff), triggered substantial debate about whether or not the board should prioritise what parameters to pay special attention to, but eventually lost the vote 10 to 1, the second, proposed with Eva Hærem (deputy representative for permanent scientific staff), was eventually withdrawn when rector Marit Boyesen and the university director John Møst took a time-out and then in their revised proposal removed the reference to the seven concrete measures, which included establishing a work group that would make suggestions about what studies to close down.

A Norwegian-language report from the board meeting is available on the UiS webpage, where you'll also find news about a plagiarism case involving a scholar which we also treated at the meeting.