Team Brautaset

Community and Stability

We ask the HF-community to trust us to lead the faculty for the next four years. Our ambition is to be proactive on behalf of the faculty, and to ensure continuity and stability. The HF democracy has adopted a strategy for the period 2023–2030. This strategy will guide our work.

We live in times where much is at stake. Every day we are reminded that the world is an uncertain place, which affects our daily lives. It may relate to electricity prices suddenly skyrocketing, or students who are prevented from going on exchange due to war and unrest. The humanities have not created the climate crisis, but we have a shared responsibility to solve a crisis that concerns us all. Neither is it the humanities that have created war and conflict, but our academic traditions hold wisdom and insights that can help lead the world in a better direction.

The humanities have long traditions in facing societal change. The humanities have the great strength that they are both timeless and topical at the same time, and they are essential to both individuals and society. The humanities provide people with insights to understand their place in the world. The humanities are a premise for new insights to emerge through critical thinking and exchange of ideas. The humanities are crucial for societies to function and to continue to be based on knowledge and democratic values.

If we are elected to hold the Office of the Deans, we will work to ensure that the faculty continues to be a beacon for the humanities. This requires collective effort towards matters we can influence ourselves. Our greatest strength as a faculty is our powerful team of engaged students, highly qualified researchers, skilled lecturers, and a competent administration at all levels.

The changes in higher education policy that has been implemented over the past few years are here to stay. Thus, we need to stand together both as colleagues and as an academic community locally, nationally and internationally. As a faculty we need to be proactive, adapt where we can, and change where we must. When we face challenges together, we have the greatest opportunity to succeed. We believe that HF still holds the keys to its own future. Through collective efforts and making the right choices now, we can create a situation where the humanities, our diverse disciplines, our staff, and students continue to thrive.   

As potential holders of the Office of the Deans, our legitimacy as leaders will rest on the democratic mandate we ask for. We will lead the faculty based on this mandate and based on loyalty towards students and staff. We will promote academic freedom and university democracy. We will support our researchers and students' academic freedom of expression and will protect and promote scholarship and scholars that are subject to external pressure.

If elected deans, we will govern through open, transparent processes and further collaboration across disciplines and departments. We will strengthen students and staff's ownership of the faculty by developing the academic, collegial, and social community at HF. Together with the fantastic HF community, we will create an even stronger and better Faculty of Humanities.

Students at the Center

The Faculty of Humanities currently has about 3500 students. Our students come to us to delve into languages and literature, archaeology and history, philosophy and religion, theatre and art, gender studies and culture. The students are trained in skills that prepare them for a long professional life, where they will also face changing conditions. Our students succeed well in the job market. While application numbers are largely driven by trends beyond our control, we can ensure that our students thrive and succeed. By focusing on the quality of our study programs, being an attractive place to study, and offering a portfolio that appeals even broader, HF can not only recruit better but also ensure that more students complete their studies. This will enhance the position of the humanities in society and further the faculty's position within the political economy of the university. 

The faculty strategy states that by 2030, humanities education at the UiB should be a natural first choice for candidates who want to shape societal development. Our graduates have perspectives, competencies and skillsets that are of fundamental importance to society. At the same time, ensuring that we recruit well to the study programmes we offer, is also an investment in the future – the future of the humanities, the future generation of scholars – and the future of our faculty. 

The faculty´s study portfolio project, the launch of a “new” first semester, and new HF quarter are central to our platform. This will provide our students with a clear path through the bachelor's degree, a good start to their studies, and attractive surroundings to study in. Collaboration and small measures can bear great fruit. We see this from the interdisciplinary master's in sustainability, but also when students use the new common areas in the HF building. The faculty, LLE, and IF came together as a joint effort to finance this upgrade. And the students respond by making the HF building a livelier place. In this way, small measures can contribute to creating learning culture and community. Students who thrive are students who stay and complete their studies.

We will:

• Preserve and develop the core values of research and teaching within the humanities.
• Recognize that the student body has changed and meet students on their terms so that they can thrive and successfully complete their studies.
• Strengthen our efforts towards onboarding of new students both through the structure and subjects of what we offer as well as projects such as "Humanists Read".
• Ensure that students receive research-based teaching and meet our best resources in research and teaching right from the very start of their studies.
• Facilitate future-oriented, ethical, and responsible use of AI in studies through training, guidance, and clear guidelines.
• Further strengthen the dialogue with the Humanities Student Council (HSU) and invite HSU to leadership meetings at the faculty once a month.
• Protect student associations from cuts.
• Promote ex.phil. as a signature of quality and identity in all educational programs at the UiB.
• Complete, evaluate, and further develop the work on the study portfolio project and the new shared first semester course with emphasis on attractive and clear study paths with clear relevance to future employers.
• Work for the realization of the BA program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
• Support the establishment of more attractive interdisciplinary study programs within and across faculty boundaries.
• Continue to focus on teacher education and the UiB as a teacher training institution.
• Strengthen contact surfaces with the school system, cultural life, and business community in Western Norway.
• Be proactive in meeting changing conditions by developing attractive offers for continuing and further education (EVU) in line with the upcoming action plan..

Quality in Research

Scholarship in the humanities is about what it means to be human. It shapes how we think, speak, and act in our own lives and in meeting others. The humanities explore, preserve, and challenge identity and heritage, thus laying the foundation for diverse, resilient, and sustainable communities. Our faculty should be leading in research and dissemination in the humanities in Norway. Our most important resource is our skilled academic staff, with their diversity of methods, perspectives, materials, academic traditions, and backgrounds. We will continue to build and further develop excellent academic environments with international impact. The best way to do this is by learning from our own staff and from colleagues elsewhere who have succeeded in their research. External funding is not a goal in itself, but a vital means to recruit young researchers to strengthen existing research environments and build new ones.

We will: 

• Promote a collective research culture through research groups and joint projects.
• Further develop the work to ensure uninterrupted time for research.
• Become even better at external funding by strengthening subject-specific research support, application writing, and necessary institutional funding.
• Collaborate nationally to improve conditions for humanities research in Norway.

Research is based on data and source material, requires ethical and methodological awareness, and is not complete until the results are shared with the research community and the public. At the Faculty of Humanities, we have the ambition to publish more, with higher quality, and involve more colleagues in ongoing research projects.

We will: 

• Continue to focus on existing collections and new research infrastructure at HF, and in collaboration with the University Library, University Museum, and other partners.
• Continue the focus on digital humanities across the faculty.
• Facilitate constructive, ethical, and responsible use of AI in research through training, guidance, and advisory guidelines.
• Follow up on the upcoming publication strategy for HF, with emphasis on Open Access and a view to humanities-specific publishing tradition and Norwegian academic language.
• Manage the national responsibility for the Norwegian language through strengthened collaboration with the University Library, and work towards stable conditions for the dictionary work and the new Research Centre for Norwegian as a Language for Special Purposes (Fagspråksenteret).
• Highlight the content and relevance of humanities research in communication from the faculty and support the dissemination of results from our researchers.

Early Career Researchers are our future and represent an important part of innovation at the faculty. Support and progress are crucial for the research education to provide a basis for further careers in research or other activities.

We will: 

• Review the PhD program with the aim of integrating university pedagogical education into career-promoting work and offer externally funded PhD candidates equivalent conditions to those internally funded.
• Strengthen the training part and career-promoting work to increase labour market relevance within and outside academia.
• Develop collaboration with Stip.-HF on good academic-social meeting places.
• Tie recruitment funds to active research groups and research environments.

Internationalization in Education and Research

Internationalization is a means to achieve academic ambitions and goals. It also has intrinsic value because it contributes to expanding our academic communities. International perspectives should characterize all education at HF. Our staff and students should have access to international networks, arenas, and funding.

We will: 

• Secure and support attractive exchange agreements within and outside the ERASMUS scheme for students, PhD candidates, scientific and administrative staff.
• Further develop collaboration with international partners and work for new strategic partnerships.
• Develop international collaboration under high ethical preparedness with emphasis on academic freedom also for our international partners.

Scope for Action

Our sector has been facing systematic budget cuts over time as well as a new political direction. HF has been proactive and taken actions to meet these challenges. Few other faculties have a similar potential to improve its own financial situation. Realizing this potential requires that we make even better use of the resources we already have and concerted efforts towards increasing our future income. The challenges the faculty are facing are structural and hence needs to be addressed by structural measures. The faculty has already taken important steps towards creating a foundation for both stability in the short-run, and growth in the longer-run. The faculty has amongst others developed and implemented a new budget model, developed a study portfolio that is being implemented from 2025 onwards as well as implemented an action plan to ensure coherent time for research. Overall, these steps have given HF time and opportunity to adjust gradually and steadily at a time of severe government cuts, high costs, and declining revenues.

The faculty´s plan for academic staffing and the UiB support scheme for small disciplines are both measures that helps facilitate long-term perspectives to faculty policies. We are committed to continuing and further developing the work to secure the faculty's economy in both the short and long term. Our ambition is to continue to be proactive in the present in order to prevent forced actions in the future.

We will continue to apply political pressure to improve the conditions for the HE-sector in general and the humanities in particular. Still, we must play with and not against the political and financial framework that govern the sector we are part of. We are deeply familiar with the policies and the system we operate within, and we will use this knowledge to the best of HF in both the short and the much longer run.

We will: 

• Pursue an economic policy within clear frameworks that secures operations and in the long term creates greater academic-strategic scope for action.
• Continue the policy of prioritizing existing salary commitments before taking on new.
• Maintain and further develop the academic staffing plan as a tool for making the most important academic investments at the faculty.
• Work for greater flexibility and academic collaboration internally and between departments.

The HF Community

Students and staff, temporary and permanent, administrative, and academic – we are all crucial for the faculty's success. A well-functioning HF community requires a combination of continuity and strategic development. We will be an open team based on dialogue and participation. We will use resources purposefully to realize academic ambitions, to continue to lift the humanities – and each other.

We will: 

• Cultivate the collaboration with the Health, Safety and Environment coordinators further, and work systematically for a good and well-functioning work environment.
• Commit to being a sustainable and environmentally conscious faculty.
• Continue the work to realize the HF quarter and gather the entire faculty under one roof.
• Utilize the infrastructure in the new HF quarter to strengthen community and collaboration across departments and centres.
• Prioritize areas that are common workplaces for students and staff particularly highly.
• Further develop the work to make important information even more accessible to students and staff.
• Continue the work to strengthen the faculty community and to continue to facilitate and to develop new meeting places such as the annual HF-day.
• Work for increased flexibility and academic collaboration between departments and centres, and the academic expertise at the Center for Excellence in Research, dictionary work, and the Professional Language Center.
• Collaborate with experts at the university and experts and stakeholders at HF to develop parallel language meeting places to include new employees, ensure good communication, and develop the HF democracy as an international community.