Every day, I read a little summary email telling where the University of Tromsø has been mentioned in the Norwegian press. Every day for weeks, maybe months, its been full of material about potential mergers among universities and colleges in the north. And most every day, most of that material, is about economic positioning, petty regional squabbles, and fear. As far as I can see, no one in this debate is basing themselves on research. No one touts research showing that mergers between institutions give better conditions for teaching or research. No one points to studies of the mergers that have happened, either in Norway or Denmark or anywhere, suggesting that this is the path to improved quality. That doesnt mean there arent important opportunities for improvement. Northern Norway is probably too small to support two very expensive research environments in technology subjects, so it makes sense to build just one. Northern Norway is probably too small to support all of the spots were given for students, since many of the little institutions struggle to get a sufficient number of applicants. So, there are real problems here. But the idea that solutions to those problems will be found through having opinions and expressing them loudly is foolish, yet thats all the media seems to be able to offer. Solutions will be found by studying kindred problems elsewhere and looking very careful at the evidence about solutions that have been tried. And, since no one is doing that, any successes of the current process will be pure luck. I am increasingly concerned that the Ministry is going to ruin higher education in the north by forcing the leadership of those institutions to focus on something where luck is all you can hope for, and thereby prevent them from focusing on actions with evidence-based hope for success behind them. Im sorry to say so, but Im really not impressed. In fact, Im disappointed.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 11:38:08 +0000
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