Board Election - Kristoffer Langlie

Magnus Steigedal wrote to the English-speaking employees of our university yesterday. This is a welcome suggestion, and one I wholeheartedly support. Following his initiative, I hereby do the same.

My name is Kristoffer Lund Langlie, and I represent the temporary academic employees at NTNU. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History and Classical Studies. My field of study is within history of technology, where I am doing research on challenges faced in transferring technological expertise in the South Korean shipbuilding industry. I worked in South Korea before joining NTNU, first at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Seoul, and then at one of the largest universities in the same city (SKKU). Because of that, I have experience with both the opportunities given by, and challenges coming from, increased internationalisation in the university sector.

The campus project will be important in the new board period. Should NTNU be co-localized close to Gløshaugen or should we keep Dragvoll as campus?

The thought of a common campus close to the city center is appealing, but that does not mean that I support a co-localization. I think that the students at NTNU would have benefited from such a solution, but I am unsure if this will lead to increased interdisciplinary cooperation between subject fields. However, for a co-localization to be followed through, a state guarantee is needed in order to finance construction to the equivalent of today’s capacity needs at NTNU. After such a guarantee is in place, NTNU still faces severe challenges in terms of future expansion and infrastructure needs. The conditions for co-localization are therefore not in place at this time. Meanwhile, the capacity at Dragvoll is more pressing, and a solution for these concerns is foremost in my mind.

The board of NTNU has decided that all leaders at NTNU should be hired and not elected. How will you secure that employees and students are heard in important matters and in the daily activity of NTNU?

Having hired leaders at NTNU is not necessarily problematic, as long as the employees have the right of co-determination. The trust in hired leaders can soon evaporate without such rights. Transparency in administrative processes and on leadership decisions is also necessary to ensure that employees and students are heard.

Building a «we»-culture at NTNU is said to be important. Is it?

I think most employees at NTNU already think of a «we», regardless of their employment in an academic or administrative position, or if they are situated at Dragvoll, Gløshaugen, or another site at NTNU. That is not to say that there are no overlapping identities at NTNU: I myself identify with NTNU, Dragvoll, and with the temporary academic employees. This is not a problem, as long as these overlapping identities do not exclude each other.

What is most important – to educate large numbers of students for the society or to maintain the multitude of smaller subjects with less direct importance for society?

It is important to underline the fact that small subjects contribute with research and expertise vital for larger subject fields. The multitude at NTNU is therefore a prerequisite for being able to give students a thorough education in preparation for later employment.

Most students and employees at NTNU have the qualifications for a future career, although it is not apparent for all employers. It is therefore critical to improve awareness of the skillsets that come with a MA-or Ph.D. degree: for public and private interests, as well as for the students and doctoral candidates themselves.

Kristoffer Lund Langlie,

Candidate for the temporary academic emploeyees at NTNU