NTNU Norway’s largest
Consolidation makes new most attended college
Photo: Ssolbergj photo / Wikimedia Commons
NTNU’s main building, the former Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in Trondheim.
M. Michael Brady
Asker, Norway
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelig universitet (NTNU)—the Norwegian University of Science and Technology—as of January 1, 2016, is Norway’s largest university in terms of student enrollment.
The growth in student enrollment came about as a result of amalgamation in higher education that started in 1996 when Norges Teknisk Høgskole (The Norwegian Institute of Technology) and Den allmenvitenskapelige høgskolen (The College of Arts and Science) merged to form NTNU in Trondheim.
The amalgamation effective this January brought in another college in Trondheim, Høyskolen i Sør-Trøndelag (Sør-Trøndelag College), with a student enrollment of 8,000, and two colleges elsewhere: Høgskolen i Gjøvik (3,000 students) and Høgskolen i Ålesund (2,000 students). So NTNU now has campuses in three urban areas, 11 faculties, and 38,000 students enrolled.
In terms of student enrollment, the University of Oslo, long Norway’s largest with 27,700 students, now is Norway’s second largest. But it’s still Norway’s oldest university, founded in 1811 as Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet (The Royal King Frederick University), named for the last king of the Danish-Norwegian union. In 1939 its name was changed to Universitetet i Oslo (University of Oslo).
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 12, 2016, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
