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Boost needed for the study of Medicine at the University of Oslo

Dean Hanne Harbo and Rector Svein St?len have co-authored an opinion piece on the need for more places to study medicine at the Faculty of Medicine. The University of Oslo urgently requires a new mandate from the authorities in order to resolve the societal challenge of training too few doctors.

Dekan Hanne Flinstad Harbo — Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo. Photo: ?sne Ramb?ll Hillestad, UiO

Dear colleagues and students,

One issue that is currently a concern for the faculty management is the need for more places to study medicine in Norway. The Grimstad Report from 2019 (link in Norwegian) concluded that Norway should increase the number of places to study medicine by 440 and that a large proportion of the places should be made available at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo due to its location in the most populous part of Norway.

Time for the authorities to get involved

Only half of the doctors in Norway are trained in the country. So far, the authorities’ efforts to train more doctors at home have not been particularly successful. In recent years, the University of Troms? has gained a total of 55 new places, while the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Bergen and the University of Oslo have each gained 40 new places, provided the annual national budget is adopted.

A new and surprising situation has also arisen, as this autumn marks the first time that it has been specified in the national budget exactly where each place would be located. The University of Oslo in Southern Norway, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Gj?vik and the University of Bergen in Stavanger.

The Faculty has started to offer decentralised places

Both the Faculty and the University of Oslo have long been planning to increase the capacity for the study of medicine. As part of this effort, the University of Oslo has already launched Campus South in August 2023 (link in Norwegian),without earmarked funds from the national budget. The students who have been admitted this autumn will complete a year in Southern Norway. From next year, students will arrive to live and study in Southern Norway for up to three years. We believe that this will facilitate better recruitment of doctors outside of Oslo and especially in Agder.

The University of Oslo has had a collaboration agreement in place with Innlandet Hospital Trust for 20 years and 134 of our students undertake their placements with them at any time. There are 25 University of Oslo employees working on health services in Innlandet. It is therefore important and appropriate to now expand our collaboration with Innlandet Hospital Trust and the Innlandet region as a whole by establishing the University of Oslo’s Campus Innlandet in 2025.

The University of Oslo is working to establish more campuses

At the Faculty, we are continuing to work on the plans for how we can train more doctors by further developing existing campuses and establishing new ones. We take the responsibility for developing this expansion in the best possible manner, together with our colleagues at the hospital trusts and other universities and university colleges in Norway.

Yours sincerely, Hanne