Tomas Mikal Lind Eagan
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The university faces significant challenges in the years ahead. Economic conditions are expected to tighten, and the global situation challenges our values and our democracy.
We, who are privileged to hold permanent positions at a public knowledge institution, carry a considerable societal responsibility. The university must represent important values such as freedom of speech and tolerance, while also providing the highest level of education attainable in Norway and facilitating free, high-quality research.
I am particularly passionate about five key points:
First, we must have full academic freedom of expression, and there must be room for the exchange of opinions between lecturers and students in every classroom. Academic staff have a societal role in voicing their perspectives on society and on the consequences of, for example, findings in their own research. The university must foster a culture where staff dare to speak up, where we can all tolerate differing opinions, and where debate is safe and encouraged.
Second, economic challenges will most likely force us to prioritize. These priorities must be well-considered and targeted. I find it hard to believe that everything we do is equally efficient and necessary. At the same time, it requires solid knowledge of what happens 鈥渙n the ground鈥� to understand what is truly essential. If, for example, administrative staff are cut indiscriminately, academic staff will likely end up doing even more administrative work than they already do. We risk making research and teaching the balancing item in the budget.
Third, the bureaucracy surrounding research has grown so significant that it now, in some cases, hinders the research itself. We need university leadership that is conscious of this, both in their local governance and in their dialogue with national authorities.
Fourth, truly excellent teaching requires effort, and the effort put in by many staff members is enormous. Yet, teaching still provides less academic merit than other tasks, and the workload is often distributed through unclear processes. I want university leadership to be aware of this imbalance鈥攚ithout imposing even more bureaucracy on the faculties than they already face.
Fifth, the university generates little income from commissioned research. I would like to see university leadership take a more proactive approach in creating collaborations with industry to foster innovation and commissioned research.
I come from the field of medicine and work partly as a professor and partly as a senior consultant at Haukeland University Hospital. I am familiar with two very different cultures of administration and governance, both with their strengths and weaknesses. The University Board must support, but also to some extent, oversee the work of the university leadership. I believe I can bring something new to the board, which is why I am running for election.
