The Anti-Discrimination Tribunal made decisions in more than 600 cases in 2023 and 2024. Students and staff in higher education and research only reported 16 cases of discrimination or harassment based on ethnicity or gender. And only one was taken further.

All the Nordic organisations for universities and university colleges believe that the educational institutions should have the main responsibility. Our Nordic neighbours have dedicated frameworks and expert groups that set the direction for this work – Norway does not.

Racism and discrimination are bad for public health. That’s according to the staff and students at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo. They are now taking steps to prevent discrimination.

Some people still shake their heads at the concept of diversity management. After all, isn’t it just about treating all employees equally?

“Yes, more researchers have parents with higher education. But you don’t have to be born into academia to succeed,” says Silje Fekjær, Vice-Rector at OsloMet.

“Diversity management is not only about the needs of minorities, but also about the other employees who might need adaptation when they’re going through rough patches in their lives,” says Professor Gro Mjeldheim Sandal.

While women actively participate in the practical work at their organisation, men dodge it.

The EU project GENDERACTIONplus is set to host a conference on equality in February. Why is this conference so important for Norwegian research institutions?

The article about a new plan against racism at Østfold University College was the most popular one last year.

According to the science hierarchy, sociology has low status whereas mathematics has high status. Both this hierarchy and the peer-review process have characteristics that structurally downgrade women’s position in academia.

A Norwegian gender equality committee won the poster competition at a large EU conference held recently in Brussels. The winning poster was “Mission: Gender Balance”.

Uppsala University in Sweden is proud of its new tool that reveals gender balance at the touch of a keyboard. Gudrun Schyman of the Feminist Initiative is positive towards the tool, as are Ministers Tora Aasland and Audun Lysbakken. Norwegian educational institutions, however, seem sceptical.

The Norwegian Government’s national budget for 2012 does not allocate any funding to the Research Council of Norway’s initiative on Gender Balance in Senior Positions and Research Management (BALANSE). Executive Director Anders Hanneborg confirms that the initiative is in danger of being discontinued.

Norwegian researcher networks in fields with an uneven gender balance can once again apply for financial support from the Committee for Gender Balance in Research (KIF). The application deadline is November 1st.