As some of you might’ve read on universitetsavisa.no (UA), Kunnskapsdepartementet (KD) released a hearing (link) regarding proposed changes for the university and university college (høyskole) boards (current regulations). Though no radical changes are proposed, what is alarming is the way the hearing has been presented. The proposed changes were first published on June 26th, with a hearing deadline August 15th. KD also did not include SiN in this hearing.
SiN will be writing a formal complaint that we were not included in the hearing, as well as commenting on the questionable hearing deadline.
Briefly summarised the proposed changes are
- Rules regarding appointment of external candidates
- As a rule of thumb, the principal should be employed rather than elected
- This can be changed by a simple majority vote (currently a 2/3-majority vote can change this from elected to employed)
- The board should not be able to decide their own compensation
- The board should be composed of 11 people*
- Board leader
- 3 members elected from employees in lecture/research positions
- 1 member elected from technical/administrative employees
- 2 elected student representatives
- 4 externals
- Currently a 2/3-majority is needed to change this composition, the proposed changes lowers this to a simple majority vote.
*Note:
One of the externals will be appointed as board leader by the department, so the numbers don’t add up…
Currently NTNU has an employed principal. According to current laws (§ 9-3.1) his seat as a leader is replaced by a member elected from employees in lecture/research positions and an external is appointed by the department as board leader.
Please also note that UA has revised its initial article. The rules regarding temporary employees for the board will not be changed as this is stated in § 9-4.2.
NTNUs reply to the hearing may be read here.