Discussion about possible future university fusion

Today and tomorrow there are info/consultation meetings in Kristiansand and Grimstad in connection with the assessment process as to whether or not the University of Agder should merge, or cooperate more closely, with Telemark University College. While the University of Agder (UiA) is one of the lowest-ranked Norwegian universities in terms of scientific "production", Telemark university college is in terms of students the fourt biggest university college in Norway, and thus not much smaller than UiA. There is substantial resistance to a fusion anytime soon, however, in both camps - and a merged university would cover no less than three counties.

The assessment report was presented in early April.

THE world ranking of universities

This year I am one of the many who have voted (upon invitation) as part of the Times Higher Education (THE)'s annual ranking of the world's top 200 universities. The ranking has just been published. These are the universities I have collaborators at, and/or have visited, and/or have academic contacts at (the University of Oslo is so far not ranked, due to lacking info - and I am sure I am leaving out some):

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6. University of Cambridge, UK (visited)

17. University of Toronto, Canada (contact)

34. National university of Singapore, Singapore (contact)

89. Lund university, Sweden (contact)

102. University of Helsinki, Finland (visited, contact)

106. Purdue university, USA (contact)

115. National Taiwan university, Taiwan (contact)

135. University of Bergen, Norway (visited, contact, collaborator)

147. Uppsala university, Sweden (contact, collaborator)

167. Aarhus university, Denmark (contact)

170. University of Groningen, Netherlands (visited)

177. University of Copenhagen, Denmark (visited, contact)