The main principles of the proposal are that Higher Education Entrance Qualification and grade averages should continue to form the basis for admission, but improving one’s grades should not be possible. Getting additional points such as age points and points for STEM subjects, languages and other studies won’t be possible either. Those applicants who do not have good enough grades to gain admission to a programme of study can take a common entrance test. Similar entrance tests are used elsewhere in the world. In Sweden, for example, they use the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT).In the proposal, 80% of the places on a programme of study will be awarded on the basis of grades, while 20% will be awarded on the basis of the entrance test. Currently, 50% of the places are reserved for those who compete on the basis of primary diplomas, while the rest may also have improved diplomas and various additional points.
Gender quotas are permitted for programmes where there is a large predominance of one gender. Institutions are also given the freedom to use additional requirements in order to bring in the right students, such as physical tests used during admission to police studies. As far as we are concerned, this could mean inviting twice as many applicants to medical studies as we have places for interviews or aptitude tests (based on grades and entrance tests), and making the final selection based on this final process.
Read the full consultation proposal: Ways in – a new model for admission to universities and university colleges (in Norwegian) and read more on Admissions Committee’s website (in Norwegian).
UiO has sent a draft consultation response to the faculty. The departments and the Medical Student Committee (MSU) have been invited to submit input to the faculty, which will then send an collective response to UiO. The faculty is now reviewing the input we have received.
We think it is a good idea that the rules for admission to higher education are simplified, and that it should also be predictable and transparent for applicants regarding who is offered a place on a programme of study. In the same way that students will enter into a multitude of different jobs after completing a course of study, we also want a diversity of students in our programmes. It is good that gender quotas will be permitted – we know that many boys take longer time to develop and may have a hard time asserting themselves in the competition that takes place at upper secondary school. However, we also want diversity in other ways – cultural, ethnic, social, age and experience. We have all seen how we contribute different perspectives in a group, and we also want this for our programmes of study. We believe this is important in order to meet the needs of the future health service.