In the report Språk i Norge – kultur og infrastruk-tur [Language in Norway – culinfrastruk-ture and infrastru-cture], the Language Council of Norway’s commit-tee on the future of the Norwegian language states:
In simple terms, Norwegian is being increas-ingly less used in higher education in Norway, albeit with large differences among different disciplines. While Norwegian is barely used in scientific publications in the field of science and technology, the share of publications in Norwegian was around 30 per cent in the humanities and just under 25 per cent in the social sciences in 2017. However, the use of Norwegian in these areas is also less common than it was before, with a marked decline since 2011. At the doctoral level, 90.8 per cent of the-ses are written in English and 8.5 per cent in Norwegian (7.7 per cent in Bokmål and 0.9 per cent in Nynorsk). In terms of the syllabus, there are large variations between the subjects, but Norwegian is widely used in most subje-cts.52
For master’s theses, the figures were 56 per cent in Norwegian (54 per cent Bokmål, 2 per cent Nynorsk).
A count undertaken at the University of Ber-gen (UiB) showed that of the 234 English-lan-guage doctoral theses published at UiB between 2017 and 2020,53 fewer than 5 per cent – 11 theses – had an abstract in Norwegian. Ten of the 11 the-ses with an abstract in Norwegian were from the
Faculty of Medicine. None of the theses in social science subjects had an abstract in Norwegian, even in cases where the researcher, the academic supervisor, the course, the end user, the source material and the source of funding were all Nor-wegian. To remedy this, the University of Bergen has recently decided that all doctoral theses must include an abstract in Norwegian, in line with the abstract in English, as a compulsory component and that this is to be enshrined in the PhD Regula-tions.54
The increasing number of international researchers in Norwegian academia may also pose a challenge in respect of the maintenance and development of well-functioning Norwegian academic and technical language. In section 6.3.9 of Official Norwegian Report (NOU) 2020:3, the Universities and University Colleges Act Commis-sion (the Aune CommisCommis-sion) wrote:
Research and higher education are internatio-nal activities, and Norwegian researchers are increasingly collaborating with researchers in other countries. A growing number of interna-tionally mobile researchers are coming to Nor-way and working at universities and university colleges. In 2007, 16.7 per cent of the academic staff at Norwegian universities and university colleges were immigrants with education from abroad. By 2014, this had risen to 22.3 per cent.
However, a high proportion of foreign natio-nals in the academic staff may make it more demanding to maintain Norwegian as an acade-mic and technical language (cf. chapter 14).
There are also far more international students in Norway than even just ten years ago.
Most international academic employees at Norwe-gian universities and university colleges have a clause in their employment contracts stipulating that they must learn Norwegian within a specified period of time. Several institutions have further elaborated on this requirement in their language policy guidelines. For example, the University of Agder has stipulated that new employees in
per-52 Språk i Norge – kultur og infrastruktur [Languages in Nor-way – culture and infrastructure]. The Language Council of Norway 2018 https://www.sprakradet.no/globalassets/
diverse/sprak-i-norge_web.pdf
53 Senior Academic Librarian Pål H. Bakka, the University Library, University of Bergen, in an article by Håvard Rem in the national weekly newspaper Dag og Tid on 22 October 2021: Språkveggen mellom forsking og samfunn [The lan-guage barrier between research and society] https://
www.dagogtid.no/samfunn/sprakveggen-mellom-forsking-og-samfunn-6.3.23394.4fddded769
54 Decision of the University Board dated 2 February 2022 https://ekstern.filer.uib.no/ledelse/universitetsstyret/
2022/2022-02-02/S_10-22Ny_regel_i_ph.d-forskrivten_nor-sk_sammendrag_av_dravahandling.pdf
manent positions who do not have a Scandinavian language background are expected to learn Nor-wegian to level B2 within three years, and they should be given training and duties that make this feasible.55 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)’s language policy guide-lines state that non-Norwegian speaking employ-ees shall be ensured training in Norwegian lan-guage, culture and society.56
In its consultative statement to the Commis-sion, the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL) noted that the encyclopaedia provides academics with a platform where they can share knowledge and information with the general public in Norwe-gian and thus exercise their freedom of expres-sion. SNL pointed out that this represents an opportunity for dissemination for researchers who are not necessarily at the forefront of the research in their field or do research on topics that make the headlines in the media. Writing encyclopaedia entries can also function as a dis-semination activity for academic staff who are not comfortable with the degree of simplification required for a feature article for publication in a newspaper or other forms of dissemination in the media, or who do not wish to participate in a pub-lic debate characterised by strong opinions, sharp words and heated arguments.
One measure to maintain Norwegian as an academic and technical language is work to develop terminology and bilingual glossaries. The Terminology Portal («Termportalen») is a research infrastructure under development at the University of Bergen in collaboration with the Language Council of Norway, for publishing and searching across glossaries, terminology data-bases and subjects.57 The goal is for the portal to become the first place students, professionals and others look when they need information about Norwegian academic terminology and expres-sions. Many of the existing glossaries and termi-nology databases have termitermi-nology in both
Nor-wegian and English, and sometimes also other languages. Glossaries are not only relevant for students whose syllabus literature has been in English and who are going to sit examinations in Norwegian; the existence of Norwegian terminol-ogy is a prerequisite for students and experts to be able to communicate and apply their knowl-edge in a Norwegian social reality, which is ulti-mately also important for democracy.58
Section 1-7 of the Universities and University Colleges Act stipulates that universities and uni-versity colleges are responsible for maintaining and further developing Norwegian academic lan-guage. This provision was added to the Act in 2009. The previous Act relating to universities and university colleges (1995) contained a provision stating that the language of instruction should
«normally» be Norwegian, which was removed in 2002. The reason for this was to enable the institu-tions to build up a broader offering in foreign lan-guages, primarily English, as part of the interna-tionalisation of education and research in Norway.
At the same time, it was also emphasised that it would still be an important task to maintain and further develop Norwegian as an academic and technical language.
55 Language policy guidelines for the University of Agder (2021) https://www.uia.no/om-uia/spraakpolitiske-ret-ningslinjer-for-universitetet-i-agder B2-nivå: Prepared by the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is both a guideline and a scale system to measure level of language proficiency.
The framework is used to describe the level of knowledge and skills in foreign languages.
56 Språkpolitiske retningslinjer for NTNU [Language policy guidelines for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)] (2009) https://www.ntnu.no/sprak-politiske-retningslinjer
57 Termportalen [terminology portal]: https://www.uib.no/
ub/fagressurser/spesialsamlingene/121707/termportalen
58 White paper Report no. 25 to the Storting (2016–2017) Humaniora i Norge [The Humanities in Norway], section 6.4. https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/
e51d8864c32248598e381e84db1032a3/no/pdfs/
stm201620170025000dddpdfs.pdf
Box 5.1 The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL) • 112 million articles read in 2021
• Almost 3.2 million unique users every month
• Almost 600,000 articles read every day • 61 per cent accessed from a mobile phone • Cited over 9000 times in the media
• Articles prepared by almost 1,000 experts The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia’s website snl.no is owned by an association in which Norwegian universities and university col-leges and several non-profit foundations and organisations are members
Annual Report 2021: About the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (SNL)
In the letters of allocation and letters of grant commitment for 2022, the Ministry of Education and Research has included the following require-ments for universities and university colleges:
In connection with the appointment of foreign researchers and teachers, the institutions must set requirements for Norwegian language trai-ning. The government expects the institutions to provide training in Norwegian for all ees who need it, and to ensure that the employ-ees’ proficiency in Norwegian is sufficient to safeguard Norwegian academic and technical language.
[Exclusively for public institutions:] As a general rule, employees should be required to be proficient in Norwegian within two years.
For positions where proficiency in Norwegian is important, proficiency in Norwegian should to a greater extent be included as a require-ment in the advertiserequire-ment for the position.
Teaching, dissemination and academic publication in Norwegian have a strong impact on the relevance of research for society, as well as preparing the students for a working life in Norwegian. Section 1-7 of the Universities and University Colleges Act states that the instituti-ons are respinstituti-onsible for maintaining and further developing Norwegian academic language.
The institutions are also required to have a lan-guage strategy that must be clearly rooted in their overarching strategies. The government expects the institutions to monitor the lan-guage situation in both research and teaching
closely, and to implement measures as and when necessary.
[Exclusively for public institutions:] The work done during the period must be descri-bed in the annual report. It is also expected that all bachelor’s and master’s dissertations and PhD theses written in a language other than Norwegian have an abstract in Norwegian.
With regard to textbooks, the Ministry of Educa-tion and Research has previously concluded that this type of activity can result in personal profit and should therefore not be included as an ele-ment in the institutions’ funding system. Further-more, the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF) has scholarships for non-fiction publications. There is a scheme for textbooks aimed at universities and university col-leges that provides financial support for the publi-cation of syllabus literature in Norwegian (Nynorsk and Bokmål) and Sami in cases where there is no commercial interest. The background for the scheme is that it is important for students’
learning that they have textbooks in their native language. The scheme is also intended to contrib-ute to the development and use of Norwegian and Sami academic and technical language and termi-nology in higher education, and to promote greater linguistic equality between Nynorsk and Bokmål.
Teaching materials aimed at primary and sec-ondary education are mainly developed through commercial publishers.