Nesna students won “Name of the year” at Khrono – no congratulations from the Nord University board – NRK

Nesna students have fought hard to maintain teacher training at the Nesna Campus, but lost when the Nord University board in June 2019 decided to close the study offer.

This week, the same students won the national Khrono award and became “Name of the Year” at the academy.

– This award means that we have raised the old woman, says one of those who received the award, Kathrine Øines Dishington Johnsen to NRK.

She says they have received many congratulations from around the country after winning the award.

– For those of us who have been called second class students and have been rejected for two years, somehow with this award we have removed that seal. We are the best students in Norway and it is a great vitamin pill for us.

But they have not received any congratulations from the Nord board of directors, Khrono writes.

– Was a congratulation from the Nord University council important to you?

– We may have had a little hope, after all we are their students and they will be there for us. That the board chooses not to recognize us is perceived as a small joke. But we have gotten used to that treatment well. from that edge.

Think emotion would be the norm

The Nesna students received the award because they managed to spark an important principled debate on various aspects of the development of higher education policy in Norway.

– Among other things, the actions they have taken go directly to the discussions about the center / periphery that have become so important at this time, and to that extent characterize Norwegian politics.

Here’s what Knut Olav Åmås said during this year’s naming at the 2020 academy, Khrono writes.

And Professor Tor Helge Allern, who is a member of the board of Nord University, thinks the board should congratulate them.

At the last meeting the board came out in favor of this.

– It wouldn’t take much to say congratulations on the award. It seems they are trying to silence the debate and leave it behind, he says.

He believes that normally being nominated for the name of the year at the academy would be cause for excitement.

The jury: – Opposition to the authorities

The jury sees the dispute at the university and the actions of the students in a bigger picture. They write this in their justification:

“Through campaigning, a lot of reader letters and lobbying, Nesna students have put college and university politics on the big political agenda. This dispute is not just about the Nord University campuses, it intervenes in a broader discussion between the center and the periphery. “

It is also stated that they have been a counterweight to the authorities and those who want to centralize, and that “The students and their allies raised an important debate with significance far beyond the Nesna Campus.”

Gone too far in the way they’ve acted

The vice chairman of the northern board, Bjørg Tørresdal, argued that they should not react to the award. But she will not comment further on the case to NRK, and refers to the interview in

Chrono

:

– I suggested at the meeting that we say nothing, just not propose any reaction, says according to Khrono.

Furthermore, Khrono writes that Tørresdal maintains that he has respect for Popular Action for higher education in Helgeland’s position, but that they have gone too far in the way they have acted.

– They have made threats and personal attacks on both the director and the members of the board. This is an unworthy democracy, and it is very regrettable, Tørresdal is said to have said.

Kathrine Øines Dishington Johnsen, a student at Nesna, reacts strongly to what the vice chairman of the board says. And he thinks Tørresdal mixes Nesna’s students with the Folkeaksjonen.

– Students and staff should participate in public debate. We’ve done it. But we have never threatened anyone, he says.