Candidate Peter Sebastian Hatlebakk

Dear colleagues,

The university is under pressure from years of public-sector cuts and rising inflation. I am a committed and experienced activist with a background from the Labour movement. I stand for election to ensure that the working conditions of PhD and post-doc candidates are given the highest priority from the UiB Board under these difficult circumstances. 

As UiB Board representative in 2021-22, I have a proven track record as an effective spokesperson for our group. I raised and successfully ensured that the board worked on pandemic compensation for PhDs, divestment from oil and weapons and the careers center UiB Ferd.

The UiB Board can positively impact the precariousness of PhD and postdoctoral life in Norway. The Norwegian careers policy must be geared towards providing more stable, long-term work opportunities for PhDs and postdocs, and more relevant and varied research education.

In my view, UiB must make early-stage career advice more available, and develop more courses in transferable skills.

I support Forskerforbundet’s policy of making four-year periods the norm for Postdocs. Postdoctoral tenure must be long enough and provide the teaching and research opportunities necessary to qualify for tenure.

I will unequivocally work in favour of democratically elected boards at every level in academia, and against new layers of New Public Management incentive governance - our university needs long-term economic stability for the research milieus to flourish over time.

I am in favour of greater diversity at the university. I will raise the question of English-language information for employees at UiB.

While academic freedom is of paramount importance, the extraordinary cruelty of the warfare on Gaza demands that we speak out with a clear voice: I support an academic boycott of Israel for the duration of the hostilities.

University democracy is something we do, not something we have. In order to secure our interests in the long-term, we must tend the small public sphere we have as UiB co-workers. I have a proven record of working systematically with faculty board members, Group B representatives at the institute level and Doc UiB and Stip-HF – and not least the labour unions Forskerforbundet and NTL. I will take initiative for assembly meetings if big issues affecting particular milieus arise. I will also write short, to-the-point summaries from the board meetings, in English as well as in Norwegian.

All best,- Peter Hatlebakk

PS: do you have questions og suggestions? Do please write me an e-mail or give me a call.