Steinar Vagstad

I am 57 years old and educated at the University of Bergen (mathematics/statistics, informatics, physics and eventually economics, where I completed a master´s degree in 1987 and a PhD in 1994). I was hired as assistant professor in 1997 and got promoted to full professor in 2001. Since 2013 I have been the main union representative for the Norwegian Association of Researchers (“Forskerforbundet”) at UoB and know a lot of people and their struggles “all over” the university, giving me insights that should be valuable for the university board.

A strong multi-disciplinary university must protect and strengthen the core activities teaching and free research. Diversity is important, and a variety of perspectives are needed – a university functions best when people think differently.

Important issues for me are budget policy and management policy, because both these restricts which sort of university it is possible to have. In my view, a university is not well fit for top-down management, and I will work for a more bottom-up type of university. Institutional autonomy is of little value unless the autonomy reaches down in the organization. I am therefore also a strong proponent of university democracy, elected leaders, and democratic governing bodies also below the top level.

As a union representative I usually work to give UoB employees the same wage growth as the rest of the Norwegian society. The average UoB employee has had less than normal wage growth for many years. Wage policy is not in itself a university board issue, but the board lay the economic foundations for wage development at UoB, and it is therefore high time that this issue is elevated to the university board.