Nowadays, most universities, university colleges and research institutes have action plans for equality. Institutions have responsibility for the content and quality of their action plans, says the Ministry of Education and Research.

The structural reform of the Norwegian higher education sector is well underway, and several institutions are in the midst of major consolidation processes. What happens to gender equality efforts when institutions are merged?

Female researchers publish less than their male colleagues. But according to a new study, this is mainly because women tend to have lower positions in the academic hierarchy.

Research on ethnic minorities in academia is mostly non-existent in Norway. Now the research institutes AFI and NIFU have been commissioned to remedy this situation.

Not necessarily, according to researchers. More women than men do research on gender, but all female researchers are not concerned with gender.

The proposal to create a joint anti-discrimination law will weaken the employer’s reporting duty, and thereby weaken all efforts to promote gender equality. This is the view of both the Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombudsman and the Vice Chair of the Committee for Gender Balance and Diversity in Research.

The Norwegian Government presented the white paper “Gender equality in practice” in early October. While the report gives a thorough account of the situation in academia, it lacks both measures and money for gender equality efforts.

Oslo is the city in Norway with the greatest ethnic diversity, but a lack of good statistics makes it hard to design effective, targeted measures to ensure diversity.

“The diversity study now underway in Norway is a ground-breaking project,” states Paula Mählck of Stockholm University.

Women with natural science and technology degrees experience maladjustment more often than their male colleagues when transitioning from master’s studies to working life, according to a new report. This is not the case for other scientific fields.

The KIF Committee has been given a new name and mandate by the Ministry of Education and Research.

Women physicists at CERN are locked in a structure and culture that is highly male dominated at all levels. The women’s movement and gender equality have not reached the physics fields, according to a history of science researcher.

There are many indications that something is about to happen with the gender balance in Norwegian academia. But it takes a long time for the changes to reach the professor level, which is still heavily male dominated.

There are sound legal arguments both for and against allowing the niqab to be worn at higher education institutions. A ban can send a clear signal in support of gender equality, but it can also be exclusionary and lead to more extreme attitudes.