“Disappointing” development after the merger: – NTNU does not benefit from internal competition

– NTNU does not benefit from running internal competition. Professional environments that work in adjacent subject areas should be organized together.

Head of Department at the Department of Historical and Classical Studies (IHK), Jan Frode Hatlen, believes that he has seen an unfortunate development at NTNU for a long time.

Speech

– ILU has for several years created offers in direct competition with the rest of NTNU

Since the university merged with Høgskolen i Gjøvik, Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag (HiST) and Høgskolen i Ålesund in 2016, he believes that competitive academic environments have emerged within NTNU. And the university has failed to address this.

According to Hatlen, the Department of Teacher Education (ILU) has developed studies that are in direct competition with those offered by the Department of Historical and Classical Studies. He explains this by saying that ILU has been slightly reorganized since the college days.

– It is disappointing that NTNU has not looked more into possible gains from the merger within teacher education, says the head of department.

Two overlapping study programmes

IHK offers a bachelor’s and master’s degree in cultural heritage management. For its part, ILU offers a bachelor’s and a master’s in archive, museum and documentation management (formerly archive and documentation management).

Hatlen believes that the study programs are very overlapping, and that the competition between them is unfortunate.

The overlap is mainly due to the fact that both programs focus on administration in the public sector. From 2024, museum management will also be included in both programmes, after archive, museum and documentation management has emphasized that museums are a central part of the study.

Hatlen believes that NTNU’s failure to organize the communities together already in 2016 was inconsistent.

– At the time of the merger, there was a discussion about where the professional community from HiST was going. It was suggested from our side that the professional communities should be organized together, says Hatlen.

– Many of the teachers are educated with us

It didn’t happen. The two subjects were organized separately. Largely because ILU argued that the subjects were too different to be organized together.

This was again the argument in 2019. Then ILU wanted to create a master’s program in the same area. Despite complaints from both the Faculty of Humanities (HF) and the Department of Historical Studies, the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences (SU) and ILU defended themselves by saying that there was no competition between the programmes.

According to SU, there was such a strong computer science focus at Archives and Collection Management that it would not compete with existing study programmes.

From this year, as mentioned, the study program has been renamed Archives, museum and collection management. The management of a museum has been emphasized as an important part of the study programme, just as it is in cultural heritage management.

– They have many new good teachers in Archives, museums and collection management. Several of them have been educated with us, says Hatlen.

Refuses to compete

Acting head of department Anne Ruth Grüters tells Universitetsavisa that the situation is not unknown to ILU, and that they are in dialogue with the Department of Historical and Classical Studies.

But she elaborates that ILU does not agree that their study program approaches HF’s study program in a problematic way.

She believes that this year’s name change is unproblematic. It is only a clarification of what the study program covers and which sector they are already training students for.

– The main reason for the name change is that it should communicate more clearly with the field of practice for which the program already educates – that is, archives, libraries and museums, archive depository and documentation management in private and public enterprises, says Grüters.

She says the name change is not an expression of plans to change or rotate program content.

– This means that the competence that these candidates are left with after graduation will still be very different from the competence that candidates from HF’s program leave with, says the ILU leader.

Collaborative professional environments

The head of department at IHK, Jan Frode Hatlen, is clear that they are not dissatisfied with the collaboration with the employees at ILU and Archives, museums and collections management. On the contrary, there is very good and close cooperation between the two professional communities.

They even have a joint research group.

Nevertheless, he believes that the organization often gets in the way of the work.

– It is NTNU, not the employees, who stand in the way of cooperation. Then it’s a bit strange that we can’t organize this in a better way, Hatlen points out.

Within museology and museum research, the research environment at NTNU is split down the middle between ILU and IHK.

– Instead of two somewhat marginal small communities, they could have been a larger and stronger one, he says.

At the same time, Hatlen believes there has long been an unhealthy tone in organizational discussions about who should “own” the environments.

– People are scrambling to absorb the others, and this is where NTNU central should have been clearer and made the difficult choices. The university does not benefit from engaging in internal competition. Especially not during the economic challenges we now face, he states.

The research group within museology and museum research does not wish to comment on the matter in the University Gazette.

– The principal must be on the field

NTNU’s guidelines for the study portfolio clarifies that study programs must be anchored in the academic environment with the greatest academic activity in relevant subject areas.

They also specify that “appropriate division of labor and use of resources must prevent overlapping study programmes”.

Hatlen believes that NTNU does not follow its own guidelines on organisation. Thus, he believes that level one must go in and investigate whether it is possible to organize differently.

He believes it is important that NTNU looks at how they can organize themselves most effectively now that the sector is entering tougher times.

– Then we avoid a painful adjustment. An evaluation of the merger would probably have been favorable. It is surprising that the board has not asked for it, says the head of department.

– And now we are entering the last year of a leadership period. It is a very good time to evaluate before a new management period begins, he continues.

– It is not unusual for several people to train in the same sector

ILU is part of the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences. When asked why they did not choose to merge the two study programs in 2016, dean Tine Arntzen Hestbek replies as follows:

– Before the merger, different models for organization were created, and there were processes for participation at both NTNU and the colleges. Archives and collection management became part of the Department of Teacher Education, as a result of these processes.

– As we are moving towards economically worse times, are you considering how to improve efficiency across faculties and institutes so that you avoid overlap as in the case of ILU and IHK?

– The Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences is in a challenging financial situation, and the situation is particularly demanding at the Department of Teacher Education.

She says work is now underway to review and develop the study portfolio at all their institutes.

– Working groups have also been established that look at study portfolios across institutes in various areas. Having said that, it is not unusual for different institutes to train students with different skills for the same sector.

– We have no plans to evaluate the merger

Vice-chancellor for education, Marit Reitan, says that academic synergies between the professional environment, also between the professional environment that came from different institutions through the merger, are relevant now.

– It is a natural part of the issues we discuss in the strategy process that NTNU is involved in, but we have no plans to evaluate the merger.

Furthermore, she clarifies that the development of the study portfolio is ongoing work.

– In issues about the study portfolio that go across the faculties, it is natural that the rector’s level takes part in the discussion.

Nevertheless, she points out that the matter has not come to her table.

– Questions regarding existing study programs are resolved through dialogue between the environments responsible for the programmes, she concludes.