Dear colleagues,
Applicants are flocking to the University of Oslo (link in Norwegian) and the faculty's study programmes are very popular (link in Norwegian) among new students. While the medical degree programme has eight first-choice applicants per study place, the international master's programmes follow the Health Economics, Policy and Management, European Master in Health Economics and Management and International Community Health with 7.2, 6.4 and 6.3 first-choice applicants per place, respectively. Our brand new master's programme in public health science and epidemiology has also received a good response, with 5.3 first-choice applicants per place. This gives us reason to be proud!
Interdisciplinary programmes are popular
The interdisciplinary programmes at the University of Oslo are particularly popular among applicants, and we note that this also applies to our study programmes. Many of the challenges facing health care require a multidisciplinary approach. Both the bachelor's programme and several of the master's programmes at the faculty are characterised by teaching based on multiple disciplines. Our teaching staff is drawn from sociology, political science, philosophy, economics, law, history, anthropology and psychology, as well as health sciences. It is important that we continue to renew our study programmes so that subjects and specialisations across the programmes can be combined.
International orientation at the Faculty of Medicine
In the Rectorate blog (in Norwegian), the Rectorate emphasizes that the lack of international orientation in the White Paper must not slow down the University of Oslo’s global ambitions. Efforts are being made by the Faculty of Medicine to develop different types of collaboration with international partners, both through the Circle-U collaboration, but also in other arenas.
Career meeting for master students
Some of us are currently attending career meetings for master students from the four partner universities in our European study programme European Master in Health Economics and Management (Eu-HEM), i.e. Erasmus University in Rotterdam, University of Bologna, MCI in Innsbruck and the University of Oslo. This Master's programme aims to prepare students for an international career in the healthcare sector.
The career meeting is an opportunity for master students to receive help with CVs, LinkedIn profiles, job applications, mock interviews and presentations. Former students are invited to talk about their experience of the transition from student to employee and about their careers thus far. The students will also present their master's theses and receive feedback in groups.
Much to learn
There is much to learn from seminars like this – and more generally, from developing international study agreements, from sending out and receiving students, from working on the teaching programmes together with international colleagues, and from grading and supervising together with staff from other universities. The question is whether we are good enough at sharing such knowledge internally at our own faculty. There is room for improvement here!
Kind regards, Eli