Norway minister open to changing unpopular PhD language requirement
Sigrun Gjerløw Aasland last week that the new requirement, which universities have until this August to implement, was something she was "already working on".
"I certainly understand that there is dissatisfaction with them [the new rules]. "It is important to recognize that there are good reasons for their introduction. We want to build strong professional communities in Norway and preserve the Norwegian language. But we must ensure that we do so in a way that does not hinder internationalization."
Pierre Lison, Chief Research Scientist at the Norwegian Computing Center (NR), who has been campaigning against the rule, told The Local that Aasland seemed "more receptive" to opposition from Norwegian researchers to the policy, which he complained was "poorly conceived" and "costly to implement".
"We do hope that this language measure will be ultimately dropped. Our view is that universities should remain obliged to offer language training courses for their PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, but that the employees should remain free to decide whether to enrol."
The new law came into force in August last year, but universities have been given a year to implement it, meaning it will not directly affect researchers and PhD students until this coming August.
The law requires all doctoral and postdoctoral researchers who do not speak Norwegian, Danish or Swedish to complete 15 study points of Norwegian language training, something Lison said would take an entire semester, or about three months, away from their research, and cost universities a considerable amount.
"What we were reacting against is that it's not just a recommendation or an offer of language classes, but that it's an obligation for everyone, even for the many PhD students and postdocs that will continue their research career in another country than Norway when their fixed-term research contract expires,' he said.
As well as the cost for universities, he said this would deter some top researchers from coming to work in Norway.
"I can very well understand that they might not necessarily be interested in using three or four months for learning the basics of the language."
Lison in December reported the law to the European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority along with the Association of Doctoral Researcher and the law firm Schjødt, arguing that it broke EFTA rules on the free movement of people.
"We believe that it's basically a kind of employment protectionism, because the Ministry of Higher Education research is not providing any funds for organizing this to the universities, which basically means that every time a university wants to hire a foreign researcher, they are going to lose money in comparison to hiring a Norwegian or Nordic researcher."
A spokesperson for the European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority told The Local that it had received the complaint and was currently waiting for answers from the Norwegian government to questions it had asked.
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