Election to the Board - Magnus Steigedal
All candidates for the upcoming elections to the NTNU board have been asked to answer 4 questions formulated by Universitetsavisa
I suspect that they will only presented in Norwegian. At NTNU there are many non-Norwegians, especially in the group I represent, the temporary scientific staff. To help you know what I think on the issues raised by Universitetsavisa I have tried to answer the questions in English as well.
Campusproject will be important in the new board period. Should NTNU be co-localized close to Gløshaugen or should we keep Dragvoll as campus?
The last time the campus plan was evaluated I was hoping for a co-localized campus. This time I will wait for the evaluation of the two solutions to make up my mind. Gut feeling tells me that moving Dragvoll will be too risky and expensive also this time around.
The NTNU board has decided that all leaders at NTNU should be hired and not selected by elections. How will you secure that employees and students are heard in important matters and in the daily activity of NTNU?
My impression is that most leaders will make their decisions after listening to employees and students. We have many arenas where employees and students can be heard. That said, more interactive arenas, like web-forums, should maybe be developed. To monitor the level of success on these matters it is important that the NTNU Work Environment Surveys cover questions on how our systems work. On day to day to day decisions there is a greater challenge. Especially for employees that don’t speak Norwegian. I will work for a more successful integration of our foreigners as part of that it is important that all employees are offered the opportunity to learn Norwegian.
Building a «we»-culture at NTNU is said to be important. Is it important?
University rankings rank NTNU lower than we like. An important factor pulling us down is reputation. For a young institution like NTNU it is therefore important that all employees and students communicate where they come from. By establishing a “we”-culture I believe that people will be more motivated to promote NTNU, so a “we”-culture is important.
What is most important – educate huge numbers of students for the society or should also smaller subjects of less direct importance for society also be possible?
It is of great importance that NTNU educate people that society needs. By doing so we will serve society and generate income for the university that can be used to support smaller subjects that attract fewer students. Examples of small subjects that are important to NTNU are in areas where NTNU is or can be excellent in research.
Opinions from other candidates on important matters for the NTNU board in the coming years can also be found in English on Insida so non-Norwegian employees can figure out who they want to vote for.
Magnus Steigedal,
Board member temporary academic staff in the NTNU board
