– We will not be merged with institutes in Trondheim

Student union representatives at the Department of Biological Sciences Ålesund fear that the merger will affect recruitment. The staff are also concerned, and wonder what the NV faculty will actually save on this.

Dean Øyvind Gregersen at the Faculty of Natural Sciences proposes that eight institutes should become five. Among other things, the Department of Biological Sciences Ålesund (IBA) will be merged with the two Trondheim-based Departments of Biotechnology and Food Science (IBT) and Department of Bioengineering (IBF). This has caused concern and unrest in the Ålesund environment.

Mari Andrine Werner Olsen and Nora Nervik are trustees for the students at IBA.

– We have been concerned ever since this first came up. If we had been an institute in Trondheim, we would have understood better that it had a useful value. But we are an interdisciplinary institute in our own city, and we do not see that this can be a good solution for us, says Olsen.

There is a working group that has reviewed which departments they believe should be merged at the NV faculty. Find out more about the solution in the fact box.

Fears more digital teaching

They are concerned that more of the teaching for the Ålesund students will be digital. They have also raised this with the dean in a dialogue meeting.

– The dean replied that there will be no more digital teaching. But then surely the point of merging the institutes also falls away a bit? Although the dean says that it will not happen, we are still concerned that there will eventually be more digital teaching, says Olsen.

They point out that the area subject Nature, environment and sustainability is already digitally coordinated with Trondheim.

– This subject has received very poor feedback from the students who have followed it digitally.

A response to a large institute

Nervik and Olsen are afraid that the merger will affect the attractiveness of the course.

– We fear that fewer people will apply here, when IBA becomes like a large institute where the main part is in Trondheim, says Nervik.

She also emphasizes that it is important that the students have their representatives in their own environment. They themselves sit in the Student Parliament in Ålesund, and fear that they may lose their place there if the institute is converted into a subject group.

– We still have hope that the dean can change his mind – the decision is not absolute until it has been discussed in the NTNU board, says Olsen.

Employees are concerned

Linda Myren Vada is a trustee for the Association of Researchers at IBA.

– Our employees are worried. At IBA, we have three subject areas, Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Biomarine. These environments have worked well together. The goal now is closer collaboration in Biotechnology and Bioengineering. We are afraid that this cooperation will become difficult, and go beyond the good cooperation we have locally. Particularly at risk is the important subject area Biomarine, which will have no natural anchoring in the institute, says Vada.

Today, there are five institutes from five different faculties represented in Ålesund.

– Now that we will no longer be a separate institute, we are afraid that it will go beyond our role here in Ålesund and make interdisciplinary cooperation more difficult. We are also close to business, and making quick decisions can be more difficult when we do not have our own head of department.

– Poorly documented

Above all, she thinks that the decision is too poorly documented.

– What do you really want to save on this? In the proposal, there are figures for saving management positions, but we have to have local managers here in Ålesund anyway, says Vada.

She also thinks that there should have been more documentation on what a merger would mean for education and for the research groups.

– We see that we have to take measures at the faculty, but we are afraid that with this reorganization process we will get a lot of noise and a heavy burden on the employees without saving anything, she says.

She says the employees feel confident that they will not have to move from Ålesund to Trondheim.

– But the employees become insecure from such an upheaval, and have to be moved from one group to another. Some will also lose their tasks and we will have to find other tasks for them – perhaps without the faculty actually gaining anything from it, neither academically nor financially.

Experience being degraded

UA has gained access to a consultation input from the management at IBA, which was written to the dean after the proposal to merge these three institutes came to the table.

“Not existing as an institute in Ålesund has so many negative effects. NTNU has a social responsibility related to maintaining the number of positions and programs in Ålesund. The proposed structure will affect our attractiveness and the Ålesund campus. We experience this process as being downgraded, and that future decisions are added to the institute in Trondheim,” they write in the letter.

Lars Christian Gansel is currently deputy head of department at IBA.

– We stand by everything that is in the letter, he confirms.

He points out that it could have been different if the institute had been located in Trondheim.

– But here in Ålesund we need the functions of an institute. It is also important to have a good basis for decision-making in order to carry out good knowledge-based processes, says Gansel.

The dean has said that the head of department can sit in Ålesund or Trondheim.

“We do not see it as realistic that the head of department, with management responsibility for a department of close to 200 employees with over 2/3 of the employees in Trondheim, should be located in Ålesund. It falls on its own unreasonableness that the dean opens up the possibility of a head of department in Ålesund, and appears more like a “flutter” in this process”, writes management at IBA.

They fear that the large managerial span will result in a poorly visible leader, challenges linked to managing employees who are geographically dispersed, difficulty in creating a good working environment, and that it will be difficult to follow up on sickness absence.

– Must have functions locally in Ålesund

Dean Øyvind Gregersen responds to the criticism as follows.

– Is there really that much to be saved by merging IBA with the two institutes in Trondheim?

– There are some direct financial savings because we get fewer people in management positions and professional benefits by bringing together the bioengineering and biotechnology programs in one institute. However, the distance between Trondheim and Ålesund means that in any case there will be a number of functions that we must have locally in Ålesund. The institute has pointed to this in its consultation response and I agree with that. We also have to count on more travel costs, says Gregersen.

– The department believes that it falls on its own unreasonableness when you say that it might be possible to have the head of department in Ålesund. Comment?

– I believe that the head of department can have his main workplace in Trondheim or Ålesund. NTNU has experience with head of department in Gjøvik for shared departments. Regardless of where the head of department sits, it will be important to have good local management with personnel responsibility at the other campus. It will also be important that the head of department has good communication with all academic circles, he says.

Gregersen says the working environment and follow-up of sickness absence is very important.

– My recommendation for this institute, which has employees on two different campuses, is that the head of department, level 4, has personnel responsibility and thus works with the working environment and sick leave.

Not purely digital topics

Regarding the criticism from the students, Gregersen says that NV has no plans for joint purely digital subjects between Ålesund and Trondheim.

– We believe this does not provide a good enough quality and learning environment. However, other forms of collaboration within teaching are relevant, such as joint syllabuses and assignments, says Gregersen.

He does not believe that the attractiveness of a study program is linked to how the institutes are organised, but that the important thing is academic content, learning environment and labor market.

– Is it now certain that the structure will be as in the proposal, i.e. that IBA will have to settle for being merged with the institutes in Trondheim?

– It is this model that I want to promote in the various bodies, that is to say for negotiation in LOSAM, to the Faculty Board and the NTNU Board, says Gregersen.

No one will be dismissed as a result of the process, states Gregersen. Nor should anyone be moved between Trondheim and Ålesund, where the Department of Biological Sciences (IBA) is located.

The plan is for the proposal to be presented to the faculty board in June, and to the NTNU board in September.