Academic ranks in Norway

Academic ranks in Norway are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Professorship

In Norway, the word "professor" is only used for full professors at universities or scientific institutions at a similar level. The title is protected by law, and may only be used by accredited institutions under certain conditions.^[1] The position below professor is called førsteamanuensis ("first amanuensis"), which is translated into English as associate professor, and requires a Norwegian doctoral degree, or similar competence (traditionally, Danish and Norwegian doctoral degrees are considered higher doctorates). The position of docent, often translated as reader, applied to people of the same competence as a Professor who did not hold a professoral chair, was abolished in 1985, when all docents received the title of professor. The title docent (Norwegian: dosent) was reintroduced in 2006 to allow promotion based primarily on performance as a university-level teacher. Docent is assumed to be equivalent to full professor (albeit different promotion criteria) and the Ministry of education and research uses professor in their English translation.^[2][3]

The position below førsteamanuensis is called amanuensis, universitetslektor or høgskolelektor, which is translated into English as assistant professor (in a US context) or lecturer (in a UK context).

Historically, professors were appointed for life by the king upon the advice of the cabinet, that is, by the King-in-Council. Due to the increasing number of appointments, this changed in 1989 when it became the responsibility of the individual institution to formally appoint professors. Historically there were a given number of professors and each professor was appointed to a specific chair. Currently each institution can establish professorships at will. In addition, each person with a position as an associate professor can be promoted to full professor provided that the person is qualified.^[4]

All people who are appointed as professors must have their competence evaluated by a scientific, independent committee, and given professorial competence.

Appointments usually are for life, although time-limited appointments are possible (especially if the position is externally funded). The mandatory age of retirement in Norway is 70, however. Professors who have turned 70 are required to leave their positions, but may continue to use the title (or professor emeritus/emerita) and in some cases may keep their office and access to university infrastructure as long as they are still active as researchers.

Professor II

Professors in Norway with part-time positions (20% or less) are called professor II. They usually have a different main job (for instance as a consultant at a university hospital, as a professor at a different university or as a researcher at a research institute). While they only hold a part-time position as professor, they otherwise hold the same status as other professors, need to have the same competence as other professors, are styled as simply professor (not professor II) and are eligible to be elected deans of their faculty. As the title professor is used very restrictively in Norway only for the most senior academics, professor II positions carry high prestige, especially among doctors and researchers at research-only institutes outside the higher education sector. Within the field of medicine, most professorships are professor II positions combined with a position as consultant at a university hospital (full-time professorships in clinical medicine are very rare).

Overview

Elected or appointed faculty positions:

• Rektor (rector; one per university; usually assisted by a prorektor and sometimes one or more viserektor)
• Dekan (dean; one per faculty; sometimes assisted by a prodekan and deans with a specific responsibility, e.g. research or student affairs). Male deans were formerly called dekanus, and female deans dekana.

Professorial ranks:

• Professor (full professor)
• Professor emeritus (males) or professor emerita (females). Retired professor; title conferred to all former full professors, regardless of how they are currently employed.
• Professor II (part-time professor; professors II are often full professors in another institution than the one in which they are professor II, or employed in other positions, for instance as a consultant at a university hospital)

Postdoctoral ranks:

• Dosent (reader; abolished at universities in 1985 (when all readers became full professors), today mostly used in professional colleges)
• Førsteamanuensis (associate professor)
• Førstelektor (senior lecturer)
• Postdoktor (senior research fellow; postdoctoral fellow)

Postgraduate ranks:

• Amanuensis (assistant professor; rarely used in universities, somewhat more common in professional colleges)
• Universitetslektor (university lecturer; lecturers in professional colleges are called høgskolelektor)
• Stipendiat (research fellow)
• Vitenskapelig assistent (research assistant; usually a graduate student)

References