Dear staff and students
I would like to welcome all employees and students to a new semester following a well deserved summer holiday!
The current office of the Dean is entering its last semester. As dean, I still have important matters to complete before handing over responsibility to a new dean.
The autumn elections are nevertheless perhaps the most important events that will take place this semester. In addition to the election of a new dean, there will also be elections for representatives to the faculty board, as well as department head elections at the Institute of Health and Society and the Institute of Clinical Medicine. In order to maintain university democracy, it is important that you get involved and participate in the elections at MED this autumn.
We will start on 5 September with a general meeting with a debate between the candidates running for election as dean. There will be an opportunity to ask the candidates questions. Feel free to prepare questions. You will find updated information on the website for the election meeting and you can participate via zoom if you don't have the opportunity to attend in person.
Budget work with a new budget seminar based on last year's model with a new long-term plan for 2023-2027 is also on the agenda this autumn.
Study programmes
We had good numbers of applicants to our study programmes this year. The faculty offers several health-related master's programmes and two undergraduate programmes, in addition to the medical studies programme. The professional degree programme in medicine also had a slight increase in the point threshold for admission this year, even though the number of applicants has decreased slightly. In health management, the point limits fell, while clinical nutrition experienced an increase for those who entered with a first-time diploma. There was a decrease for those enrolled in the ordinary quota. Read more: Studies and admission requirements 2022 (in Norwegian).
The start of studies for medicine (profession) and clinical nutrition is 8-12 August. The Bachelor in health management starts on 15 August, at the same time as the rest of UiO. It is always a pleasure to meet the new students!
Our new Master's programme in Public Health Science and Epidemiology (in Norwegian) was adopted by the faculty board on 14 June and by the UiO board on 21 June. It is scheduled to start in 2023. The final details of the study programme will be completed during the autumn.
This autumn, our research students Lise Andrea Arge, Anne Sjøbakken Fleiner and Ida Sofie Rettedal Skjæveland are organizing the national conference Frampeik, with the important theme of "Equitable research".
Research
In conjunction with UiO's celebration day on 2 September, postdoc Ingvild Elise Bjerke from IMB will be awarded the King's Gold Medal for her thesis in neuroinformatics, and two honorary doctorates will be conferred at our faculty: Professor Trish Greenhalgh (general medicine) from the University of Oxford and professor Carolyn Lam at DukNUS in Singapore (cardiology). In addition to the conferring in the auditorium, the honorary doctors will also give their traditional lectures in the science academy on the same day at lunchtime.
Our new K.G. Jebsen Centre for cardiac research will open on 1 September at Ahus. We wish centre manager Torbjørn Omland the best of luck, both with the opening and start-up of the centre.
I'm looking forward to the Anders Jahre award ceremony 3 November. This year's main prize winner is, as you know, our own professor Harald Stenmark for his studies of processes in cell membranes and how dysregulation of such processes affects the development of cancer.
Innovation
The Life Science Growth House is responsible for the work with innovation for the faculty. They are well underway. Feel free to read the summary from the first semester at the Life Science growth House. The Life Science Growth House will hold a workshop with representatives from the institutes at MED on 1 September. The aim is to put joint action plans in place for the innovation work for the Life Science Growth House and each individual institute, based on the institutes' needs.
Meet the Life Science Growth House at Arendalsuka (Arendal Week): The Life Science Growth House, the University of Oslo, the Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Norway (LMI), Oslo Science City and Innovation Norway invite you to a discussion at Clarion Hotel Tyholmen in Arendalsuka (Arendal Week): From research to production – Norway as a home for the healthcare industry.
Also get the Life Science Growth House's next innovation hangout for academia and industry on 8 September.
On behalf of the faculty management, I wish you all a happy new semester!
Kind regards, Dean Ivar P. Gladhaug