Country Profile: United Kingdom

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Norway

Higher Education

Norway has four universities and 26 colleges of higher education. The number of public colleges was reduced from 96 to 26 due to a reform in 1994. There are also a number of private colleges. Regional colleges offer related degrees which may be recognised as part of a university degree.

Status of Geography in Norway

Geography is a compulsory subject in lower secondary schools (13-15 year old pupils), but is taught as part of a social science programme along with history and social studies. Social science is taught for 3–5 lessons per week, however teachers are usually specialists in one of the three subjects, with almost 70% specialising in history and less than 10% in Geography. Studies have indicated that less than one third of the overall time allocated to social science is dedicated to Geography. In upper secondary schools (16-18 year old pupils) Geography is taught for two hours a week as a compulsory subject during the second year. Geography is also an optional subject and can be taken for an additional three hours during the second year and five hours during the third year, although this is only chosen by a few students and not all schools offer this. In general, Geography in schools is relatively stable however there has been a general reduction in the time allocated to the subject.

Geography is a well-established but relatively small subject in higher education in Norway, with three departments in the four universities. The number of applications for higher education Geography courses is stable to slightly declining. There are currently between 750 and 800 students studying Geography at different levels within higher education in Norway.

Employability

Most geography graduates find jobs, many within the public service sector. Some graduates go into education or research while the growth of the GIS industry has meant that Geography graduates are sought for these positions.

Challenges

The main challenge in higher education is to make Geography an attractive and visible subject to ensure that the number of applicants and students selecting this subject does not decrease. Within schools the challenge is to keep Geography as a compulsory subject within the curriculum and try to increase the number of specialist Geographers available to teach the subject at secondary level and the number of schools offering the Geography as a selective subject.

Threats

Geography within higher education is under threat of being merged with other subjects, and therefore loosing its identity. Similarly in schools Geography is at risk of being combined with other subjects or marginalized. Social science and

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Geography are not compulsory for students in Teacher Education and are marketed as an optional subject, therefore there are few teachers specialising in this area. In some cases aspects of Geography are being integrated into other subjects, for example in primary schools aspects of Physical Geography are included in natural science.

Recent Changes

In higher education the modularisation of studies has increased the competition with other subjects. Before 1997 Geography, history and social studies were taught as one subject in schools. Following the new National Curriculum introduced in 1997 these three subjects are taught separately to pupils from the age of 10 years old.