‘Going Viking’ for Experience: HSE Staff Training at the University of Oslo

If universities were people, then the 203-year-old University of Oslo (UiO) would be the great grandfather of the Higher School of Economics, which was founded in 1992. It is remarkable, however, that despite of the age gap, the student populations of the two universities are comparable in size. The UiO – almost the same size as the HSE but having 10 times more experience – is therefore definitely one of the best partners to learn best practices from.

On October 7-10, a group of administrators from the HSE’s campuses in Moscow and St. Petersburg visited the University of Oslo. The visit was made possible following bilateral agreements signed between the two universities’ rectors, Yaroslav Kuzminov and Ole Petter Ottersen, in April 2014. The agreements cover cooperation in various fields and student exchange between the two universities.

The UiO is Norway’s first university and the country’s largest public institution of research and higher learning. Today, the UiO is Norway’s highest ranked university. According to the Shanghai World Ranking, it is in the World's Top 100. It now offers over 800 courses in English.

The HSE group consisted of 12 participants from several administrative units, including the central administration, study offices at the departmental level, and representatives of the International Students Office.

The aim of the visit was to learn about best practices successfully carried out at the UiO. Of particular interest to the HSE group were the following areas:

• best administrative practices in managing educational programmes
• student support systems
• building horizontal networks for embedded internationalization
• various national topics, such as the Norwegian education reform of 2003 and its outcomes

HSE staff members visited several faculties, including the Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Educational Sciences. The Department of Archeology, Conservation and History, the Department of Media and Communication and the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages opened their doors to their Russian colleagues and were ready to share the specifics of their work. Additional UiO units were also visited during the trip – the UiO International Summer School, the Office of Admissions and Student Exchange, the Student Information and Communication Office, information centres in the faculties, and others. These informative meetings enabled the HSE delegation to learn about

• the three-level administrative scheme of the university and task distribution between higher administration, faculties and departments;
• the UiO faculty budget system and the way financial management and internal audit are arranged within faculties;
• management of enrollment and education processes at the UiO;
• arranging mobility for incoming and outgoing students, individual study programme design and assessment of student performance;
• services provided for domestic and international students, and much more.

The efforts of everyone at the UiO made for a very well organized and fruitful visit. The HSE expresses its deepest gratitude to all UiO administrators who both lead and work in the university’s faculties, departments, offices and centres. The Office for International Relations and Research Support in particular deserves mention for organizing such a fantastic programme. Trine Merete Kvernmo, Solveig Aas and Arina Shadrikova made the trip a very informative experience. The Higher School of Economics looks forward to further cooperation with its Nordic colleagues.

Department of Internationalization