Cost-cutting on the horizon at the University of Bergen

Government’s plans to force all foreign researchers to learn Norwegian are to blame, says rector

To train foreign post-doctoral researchers in the Norwegian language, the University of Bergen will have to make cuts elsewhere, its rector has said. It comes after the government has introduced new rules, set to come into force in August, that all foreign researchers need to have an adequate understanding of Norwegian.

“We are an international university: approximately 40 per cent of the scholarship holders are recruited from outside the Nordic countries. These language requirements mean that we have to cut back on something else,” wrote Margareth Hagen, the university’s rector, in a blog post.