The Rector Election - Interview with Team Solve
Elin Kubberød, Solve Sæbø and Eirik Trømborg
The Rector Election - Interview with Team Solve
Since 2014, a Rector has been employed at NMBU, but this year the Rector Election will be held 17-21 March. At the time of writing, Team Fjellheim and Team Solve had publicly announced their candidacies for the Rector and Pro-Rector positions. In this edition of Tuntreet, all members of Team Solve were interviewed.
Journalist: Jardar Nikan Alaei
Translator: S. Faseeha F. Gillani
Photographer: Håvard R. Magelssen
Who is on Team Solve?
Solve Sæbø started at NMBU as a student in 1994 and he says, “When it was changed in December to elected rector, I felt that now there is an opportunity to make decisions differently. What drives me is the desire to leave a footprint on the institution that I am extremely happy with”. He has experience as a former pro-rector for education (2017-2021) and is running together with current pro-rector for education Elin Kubberød, and section leader for renewable energy and forest science, Eirik Trømborg, who is running for the pro-rector for research and innovation position.
The formation of the team
When asked how the team came together, Kubberød replies in a separate email that “I have very good experiences working with Solve, both from his time as pro-rector and from when in 2022 we worked on developing an SFU application that embraced the whole of NMBU. It was therefore an easy choice for me to run with him”. During the team formation, Kubberød and Sæbø were looking for a candidate with complementary expertise, which they found in Trømborg. Regarding his own motivation, Trømborg says that he wants to contribute and develop NMBU further with his experiences from private business, NMBU, the climate committee, understanding of management and economics, and collaboration with companies and organizations in research projects.
Education
Focusing on education and on students is central to both team Fjellheim and team Solve. Team Fjellheim, which consists of current rector Siri Fjellheim and pro-rector for research and innovation Finn-Arne Weltzien, and associate professor of biostatistics Hilde Vinje as a candidate for pro-rector for education, says in a feature in Khrono that there is already a good student environment at NMBU, and that they want to continue working in close collaboration with the students. Weltzien also says that NMBU has started a new project where students have the opportunity to participate in research projects at the university.
During our interview, Kubberød says that when you are in a leadership position, you have to keep up with the challenges you face, “For example, there is a declining youth population, and artificial intelligence is coming with full force throughout society.” For a period, she worked on an interdisciplinary master’s program in entrepreneurship and innovation, and based on the experiences through this master’s program, she says that students, both full-time students and working part-time students, have the same need for flexible solutions to be able to combine education and other professional activities. In her email to us, she further writes that “Demographic changes and the need for restructuring in working life reinforce this development. NMBU must take a clear stance on lifelong learning and equate continuing- and further education with ordinary education – for the benefit of both current and future students.” She wants to achieve several strategic measures, including offering modular and flexible education that appeals to both full-time students and working students. A modular education can, for example, be a one-year study that can be integrated into a bachelor’s degree. The idea behind these modules is that they can be taken in a number of different educations. Solve says that when society changes, the need for expertise also changes, “Education is a lifelong process where modular education makes it easier to take a short course”. Kubberød adds that these modules can possibly be run several times during the semester. Solve says that they are interested in supporting the educational and research communities at NMBU. “They are the ones who know best in their own field how to successfully deliver quality”, says Solve.
Economy and environment go hand in hand
There has been a lot of talk about tougher economic times for NMBU lately. Team Fjellheim has been discussing how to secure more external funds through fundraising. Weltzien comments to Khrono, “the sector has been told that the budgets will not grow, and that they must look for more external funds. But of course, we always have the ethical aspects with us. There should be academic freedom, we should have integrity in research”. Fjellheim adds that the campus development plan “obliges us to reduce our area by 10 percent by 2030”.
When it comes to land efficiency, Trømborg says, “Land use is a key factor in terms of nature and climate. If we can use the land more efficiently, especially offices where there may be a lot of empty space in some places, then there is potential to use it much more.” Then, Kubberød adds, “by taking into account the new needs of education and teaching methods, it will affect land use. There may well be more digital teaching and when you meet on campus, it is set up for active learning activities and then you can look at resource use in new ways.”
When asked about other suggestions for how to improve the financial situation at NMBU, Trømborg replies that it is central to achieving a good division of labor between administration and the faculties, “We are a good university when it comes to obtaining external research funds, which are increasingly becoming more and more important. With a combination of basic research and applied research, which is increasingly externally funded. We must involve researchers and the faculties more actively in the dialogue with the outside world”. Central to team Solve is achieving a good dialogue with companies and partners that results in more research.
Finally, team Solve is asked if they want to give a message and Kubberød concludes by saying “we are very committed and have a lot of experience. Everyone has leadership experience and we have been in all possible roles at the university. We want to make a good effort for NMBU in a demanding time and for many that may be a little scary, but not for us because we have a burning commitment to NMBU”.
A third team!
Close to the deadline, a third team also joined the race for the rector position. Those running are Vincent Eijsink as rector, and Ingunn Burud and Thea Blystad Klem as pro-rectors. The team explains this in an email to Tuntréet: “We are running because we all have great enthusiasm for NMBU, but also, unfortunately, significant concerns for our university. We believe that the management of NMBU has not functioned optimally in recent years and we note that NMBU no longer has its finances under control. We see major challenges in the interaction between the management, central administration and the faculties, and the faculties among themselves, which must be addressed. We need a different management culture.”
Removing barriers is also something the team is concerned about, both barriers to collaboration and barriers between faculties and departments. They also say that they want to be responsive and talk to people.
Students and employees are encouraged to attend the election meeting at Samfunnet on March 13.
