New Act relating to universities and university colleges in progress

In February 2020, the Ministry of Education and Research invited comments on the Official Norwegian Report with a proposal for a new Act relating to universities and university colleges (NOU 2020:3). The work has been led by the Aune committee and the aim has been to review and assess the regulations for universities, university colleges and student welfare. The Ministry of Education will consider the committee’s proposals and the hearing statements and aims to enable the government to submit proposals for a new Act relating to universities and university colleges in spring 2021.

6 Centres for Excellence in Education (SFU´s) (bioCEED, CELL, Matric, Excited, CCSE and iEarth), submitted a joint hearing statement which specifically relates to Chapter 8 “Teaching, assessment, censorship, appeals and Diplomas”.

An important issue we addressed in our comments is how the law should facilitate constructive alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and assessment. In the proposal the committee underlines the importance of a framework law for how institutions organize teaching, but we mean that the proposal at the same time put new restrictions on how institutions assess students. This is problematic and have implications for constructive alignment, formative and summative assessment and the resource disposition at institutions. We propose that the Act should reflect the language and practice established through research and other governing policies, and that it in its current form represent an outdated view on teaching and learning.

If you want to read the full hearing statement from the SFU´s you can find it here (in Norwegian).