In 2021, a committee was set up to look at the possibility of improving the regulations for admission to higher education. The background was that admissions to higher education have long had artificially high score limits, which has led to many young people spending several years trying to get into their dream course.
In December 2022, the admissions committee presented the report Veier inn – new model for admission to universities and colleges.
It states, among other things, that 80 per cent of admissions to higher education must be based on grades and that 20 per cent of places must be filled using an entrance exam.
The committee also wants to move away from the first-time quota and ordinary quota that are used today, and instead adopt a single grade quota. This means that there will be the same grade quota for everyone applying for higher education.
In addition, they will remove all additional points.
Admission test
Sjur Oskar Korsæth, leader of Høyre’s Student Association in Bergen, is positive about the entrance exam.
– The advantage of an entrance exam is that people don’t have to spend too much time taking up subjects from upper secondary school. It is not socially beneficial for people to take up subjects, because it leads to young people taking longer to get an education. An entrance exam can overcome that.
Leader of the Labor Party’s students in Bergen, Henrik van der Hoeven, also believes that there are good and interesting proposals coming from the committee.
– It is similar to what happens in admissions schemes in other countries. There has also been a very good consultation process around it. The government’s proposal has still not been presented, so it will be very exciting.
Remove additional points
The admissions committee’s proposal to abolish all additional points, on the other hand, meets with partial skepticism from the Høyre student association.
– Like the committee, we are also critical of additional points. However, we believe that certain additional points should be preserved. Points for completed first service, we believe should remain. Conscription is one of the major deprivations of liberty the state can impose on you, and we believe it is right that those who lose their liberty to preserve ours should be compensated for it, says leader of the Conservative Party’s student association, Sjur Oskar Korsæth.
Furthermore, he also believes that science credits should be preserved.
– It is difficult to have science at school, but at the same time it is important that we have a high level within science. If we are to be able to solve the climate crisis, we have to have that expertise. Then it is important that enough people want to choose science at school.
However, gender points and points for having attended folk high school should be removed completely, according to Korsæth.
– We are initially skeptical about going in with points based on gender. At the same time, it is clearly better with gender points than with hard quotas. When it comes to age points, we believe that it is not a particularly good criterion for allocating places to those who are best suited.
Van der Hoeven is also ambivalent about the additional points.
– There are advantages and disadvantages, but we are in favor of most of the points. But we clearly see challenges with gender points. Of course we want equality in the studies, but when people choose to change gender, it shows a clear disadvantage. The same applies to science credits. For law or sociology, it is not logical that it should pay to take physics and chemistry at upper secondary school.
He believes that grades from upper secondary school should be weighted differently.
– Subjects that are relevant to the education you are going to take should be weighted to a greater extent.
The private scheme
Although the admissions committee does not want an opportunity to take up subjects, they are still adamant that it should be possible to take up new subjects after finishing upper secondary school.
According to the Directorate of Education, 102,400 private examinations were taken in the 2022-23 school year.
Van der Hoeven says that today’s private sector system presents challenges.
– Firstly, it is expensive. Second, it creates grade inflation. It is not positive that averages have gone up in all studies. If we are going to have that scheme, it should be free for everyone, so that everyone has equal opportunities. It should not be the case that only those with the most money should be able to take up subjects.
The leader of the Conservative Party says that he is basically in favor of people having more chances, but at the same time says that it is not appropriate for people to take up subjects from upper secondary school, when they already have a diploma.
Increased grade pressure
The Universitetsavisa at NTNU mentioned this autumn that the Faculty of Economics “fears that upper secondary students will experience increased pressure when they do not have the opportunity to improve their grades from upper secondary”.
Have you caught up with these matters?
Van der Hoeven says that they have been clear that it should not be the case that there is no opportunity to improve grades. He also says that the pressure on today’s students must not be increased.
Korsæth believes that the changes can have different effects.
– If science credits disappear, it could lead to fewer people daring to take science subjects, which we see as very negative. At the same time, I don’t know if it leads to more pressure on grades if an entrance exam is used, because then you have the opportunity to get in. In addition, the grade point average and the intake quota will correspond much more than they do today, if the additional points are removed, he says and adds
– Overall, I am still unsure whether the new admission system will deliver gold and green forests.
Different intake methods
Beyond the current grade quotas, there are studies where emphasis is placed on other factors. An example is the architecture course, where there is both an entrance exam, a normal grade quota and interviews.
Korsæth says that the Conservative Party is in favor of the study institutions being able to decide for themselves to a greater extent how the admission method should be resolved.
– At my educational institution, maths is a pretty good indicator of how you will do on your studies. Hypothetically speaking, one could say that if NHH wants to emphasize math grades to a greater extent, then they should be free to do so. The study institutions should be allowed to decide more about this themselves, the state should not prevent them from doing so.
Van der Hoeven says that different intake methods can be a good opportunity. Nevertheless, the manager believes that it is important to have good central guidelines, so that it does not become unfair between different institutions.
The admissions committee has, among other things, received criticism from the Norwegian Student Organization (NSO). They are skeptical of the proposal for an entrance exam as a method and have previously stated that it could lead to favoring certain groups and aim that those who are good at studying and have enough resources are the ones who have the best chance of mastering such a test .
