A record number of women want to study technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). More men are applying for pre-school teacher training. But most students still make traditional choices.

According to a new study by the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), female researchers are cited less often than their male colleagues.

Representatives to the Norwegian Parliament applaud the Research Council’s grant scheme to promote women in research, but will not guarantee allocations for the project.

The rectors of Norwegian universities and university colleges welcome the Research Council’s new initiative to promote women in research. 

We need to know more about the recruitment processes in the research sector. This is the message that came through loud and clear when the Research Council of Norway held a workshop on the factors that impede gender balance at the upper levels of research.

If we continue at the current pace, it will take 75 years before half of the senior academic positions are held by women. Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland believes the institutions have a duty to adopt action plans that speed up the progress.

Five of the 14 Centres for Research-based Innovation (SFI) in Norway do not have women on their boards.

“We are very pleased because we have worked systematically to promote gender equality,” says Eli Bergsvik, Rector of Bergen University College.

The number of women in academia in Norway has increased, yet they are still a minority, and the target that women should make up half of all academic personnel in permanent positions has not been achieved. If the current rate of change in the higher education sector continues at the same tempo as it has in the 1990s and the current decade, it will take another 25 to 30 years before half of those in permanent positions are women. These figures emerge from a new report compiled by NIFU STEP.

Norwegian Minister for Education and research, Øystein Djupedal, emphasizes the use of positive discrimination to recruit more women to top positions in academia, and he is looking to the EU for the means to do this. However, he is receiving criticism for his budget from the opposition.

The start package was not a lifesaver, but it has given professor Heidi C. Dreyer the opportunity to work towards her long-term goals.

There is a great deal of focus on the proportion of women among permanent staff at universities and university colleges in Norway. But it is in business and independent institutes that the proportion of women is the lowest.

What will minister Øystein Djupedal do to speed up gender equality work in the higher education sector?

In the autumn, here in Norway, a new round of the grant Outstanding Young Investigators (OYI), will be launched. Professor Inge Henningsen is of the opinion that the Research Council of Norway should make an equal opportunities assessment of the whole program.