Discrimination in education in Norway

Norway generally enjoys a fair and free educational system which is expected from the host to the Nobel peace prize and a country with high democracy index. This is specifically the case for basic education according to Human Development Reports. There are, however, issues regarded as educational discrimination in higher education. The following incidences came to life after conservative minority government formed by the Conservative Party and the Progress Party in mid 2013.

Attempts to introduce tuition fee

In 2014 the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research proposed to the Norwegian Parliament that a tuition fee be introduced for foreign students in Norway. Student unions regarded this as discriminatory and also a disgraceful beginning to introduce tuition fee for local students and consequently a serious breach to free education principles in Norway. The proposal for the introduction of tuition fee for international students finally was withdrawn by the Ministry of Education and Research after a massive protest from academicians in Norway. The National Union of Students (NSO) and then International Students' Union of Norway (ISU) were the cornerstones of the successful "stopp skolepenger" (stop tuition fee) movement and many other organizations also supported them in the fight against the Ministry of Education and Research.

Restrictions due to "sensitive-technology transfer"

In 2013 the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) started to tighten the regulations concerning transferring of the knowledge potentially usable in development of mass destruction weapons. Based on a security assessment, Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) instructed immigration authorities to restrict the renewal and issuance of visa and residence permit for Iranian students and skilled workers. In all cases there is a risk assessment and assigning a risk factor to Iranian students on how probable it is to transfer sensitive technology to Iran than can be misused in development of mass destruction weapons. The practice was recognized as stricter than other countries and prominent higher education institutes in the world. A strict, wide and ambiguous definition of sensitive fields of study then led to expel several students from Norway, among them Hamideh Kaffash with the justification of domestic export control law and also UN security council sanctions. In addition to so many Iranian students, the so called "spy-filter" (as it is called in Norwegian media) affected handful number of researchers from other countries, namely Pakistan, Syria and China. Chines government sharply reacted to the issue, vowing Norway for a downgraded relationship

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) in collaboration with Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research also severely warned academic and higher education institutions in Norway about the new practices of export control regulations, instructing them to be extremely cautious when registering students from Iran and North Korea. As a result, the enrollment of many students in engineering programs was hindered due to their ethnic background.

Reactions

• Negative feedback
  • Protests were spontaneously organized by Iranian students.
  • Many academicians and public figures including Noam Chomsky and May-Britt Moser also strongly disagreed with the practice and called upon reconsideration or withdrawal of the state discrimination in education.

• • Norwegian University of Science and Technology sharply reacted to the decision on the rejection of residence permit for two of its Iranian PhD students and appealed the decision on behalf of them. Gunnar Bovim the rector of NTNU wrote in his blog and afterwards said in interviews that the Iranian students were the best qualified candidates for their position...we may lose the battle for the best brain with this practice, stressing especially on the processing time for residence permit application.

• Positive feedback
  • VG, the Norwegian tabloid newspaper welcomed the decision by immigration authorities based on recommendation by PST stating that "there is no reason to question Iranian students' good intentions...yet PST assessment shall dominate. The problem is the Iranian regime who chooses to spend enormous resources on its controversial nuclear project". There are also supporting comments from ordinary Norwegian citizens under the article.

• Anders B. Werp from Conservative Party also belives that PST is doing an important and correct job to expell Iranian students.

Legal actions

• The Buskerud and Vestfold University College (HBV) rejected an Iranian student to a master program in system engineering with embedded systems explicitly because of her nationality. The case was brought to the Gender-Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud by the Iranian student where it was concluded that the college committed unlawful discrimination based on ethnic background and nationality.
• Hamideh Kaffash and Shahin Akbarnejad the two Iranian PhD students at NTNU who were expelled from the country by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), sued the Norwegian government over discrimination in Oslo District Court. The court heard the case on 17th-22nd of June 2015.
  • First day of the court (17 June 2015) consisted of presentations from Iranian PhD students about themselves and their fields of study together with the presentations by lawyers on both sides.
  • Second day of the court (18 June 2015) saw two NTNU professors and a political scientist at NUPI testifying in favor of Iranian students and two witnesses from FFI testifying in favor of the Norwegian government.
  • Third day of the court (19 June 2015) was an extensive day with a lot of in-depth legal argumentation from both sides and the lawyers of eider side had the podium most of the time.
  • Forth and the last day of the court (22 June 2015) was conducted behind the closed doors with the judge, PST and government lawyers and the shadow lawyer of Iranians Aase Sigmond.

The final judgment by the court will be announced in mid-July 2015.

See also

• Discrimination in education
• Convention against Discrimination in Education
• Freedom of education
• Inclusion (education)
• Right to education

References

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