– I think this is where we should meet? At least it is in this building. Maren Turmo (25) has found the right building on campus in Tromsø, but is not quite sure where she should register. Today is the first day as a medical student at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. The road here was not directly straight. In 2021, Turmo had no grades from upper secondary school. Now she faces years of studies at one of the country’s most prestigious educational institutions. Maren Turmo had never been to Tromsø before she moved to the city in mid-August. Photo: Ingvild Vik / news Secured a place after a mistake When Turmo had to check the status of her study admission in mid-July, she got a never-so-small shock. The 25-year-old, who is best known as a fitness influencer and for his participation in a number of TV programmes, had applied to medical courses in several places in Norway, without really expecting to get in. But now she was at the top of the waiting list in Tromsø. – I have always had a great fascination for the body and how it works, Turmo tells news. Turmo is excited about what awaits her as a medical student. She has dreamed of becoming a doctor since she was a child. Photo: Ingvild Vik / news When she took a closer look at the score limits in the recording, she realized that Samordna recording had made a mistake in calculating her points. Thus, the place at the dream study in Tromsø was in reality already secured. Nordlys mentioned Turmo’s path to study at UiT first. Being from the north helps Turmo has lived in Oslo for the past eight years, but originally comes from Mosjøen in Nordland. Therefore, she could apply for admission in the northern Norwegian quota, and be guaranteed a study place with fewer points than if she had been from another part of the country. Several courses at UiT have a proportion of study places reserved for applicants with connections to Northern Norway. Education with a Northern Norwegian quota: These educations at UiT Norway’s Arctic University have their own quotas for applicants with connections to Northern Norway. Proportion of places reserved for these in brackets: Nursing (80 per cent) Protective care (60 per cent) Occupational therapy (50 per cent) Radiography (80 per cent) Physiotherapy (80 per cent) Nutrition (60 per cent) Bioengineering (80 per cent) Pharmacy (50 per cent) Odontology ( 60 per cent) Dental care (80 per cent) Paramedicine (50 per cent) Medicine (60 per cent, eight of these places are reserved for applicants from Nord-Troms and Finnmark) Psychology, profession (60 per cent) Law (67 per cent) Informatics (50 per cent) Climate and environmental monitoring (50 per cent) Artificial intelligence (50 per cent) Renewable energy (50 per cent) Space physics (50 per cent) Applied physics and mathematics (50 per cent) In medical education, this applies to 60 per cent of the 181 places. – For my part, the Northern Norway quota is a great advantage, says Turmo. In medical education, the point limit for all applicants with a first-time diploma was 59.8 last year, while the limit for first-time applicants from Northern Norway was 54.5. How the admissions system works When you apply to public universities and university colleges in Norway, you can usually apply in two quotas: Ordinary quota and quota for applicants with a first-time diploma. Half of all study places are reserved for applicants with a first-time diploma. You have that even in the year you turn 21. Ordinary quota is the other half of the places, for which all applicants compete. Some studies at UiT Norway’s Arctic University also have quotas for applicants with a northern Norwegian connection. The size of these varies from 50 to 80 per cent of the places. To calculate points for the first-time diploma, you take the average of your grades at upper secondary school and multiply by 10. Then additional points are added for: Science, language subjects, any gender points and points for entrance exams. You can have a maximum of four additional points. To calculate the points in the ordinary quota, you take this score and add age points and additional points for community college, military service, civil service, vocational school or higher education. This year, the score limit has fallen to 57.8 for applicants from all over the country. For applicants from Northern Norway, the score limit fell by almost ten points, to 44.9. It is far lower than elsewhere in the country. NTNU has the highest score limit for medicine: 61.7 points for applicants with a first-time diploma. Even in the ordinary quota – which Turmo applied for – the point limits are widening; 66.8 for applicants from outside the region compared to 60.3 points for applicants from northern Norway. At NTNU, the limit is 69.4 points in 2024. – Important for the region The rationale for having a northern Norwegian quota is that students who already have a connection to the region more often work in the north after completing their education, says State Secretary for Research and Higher Education Ivar B Prestbakmo (Sp) to news. – UiT is important for our northernmost part of the country and has an important societal mission in educating candidates that working life in northern Norway needs, says Prestbakmo. On some courses, the point limit in the North Norwegian quota has been dropped completely, so that everyone who wants can enter. This applies, among other things, to dentistry, where the point limit was 51.6 points last year. Director of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, Sveinung Skule, tells news that they see a general tendency for the point limits in the northern Norwegian quota to fall slightly. Director of the Directorate for Higher Education and Competence Sveinung Skule. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news Part of the explanation is that more study places have led to lower admission requirements. Points to more places State Secretary Prestbakmo points out that the government has invested heavily in increasing the number of study places in medicine in recent years. – At UiT alone, 65 new study places have been granted in the period 2020–2023, he says. In 2024, there will be 60 more study places, divided between NTNU, UiB and UiO. State Secretary for Research and Higher Education Ivar B. Prestbakmo (Sp). Photo: Fathia Mahmoud Farah / news – All these extra study places mean that more people will enter medical studies overall. Both fewer applicants and more study places can cause the point limits to drop. At the same time, the figures from Samordna admissions show that there are fewer people applying to study medicine at UiT now than two years ago. – The quota for northern Norwegian applicants has been important to ensure qualified labor for our northernmost part of the country, says vice-chancellor at UiT Kathrine Tveiterås to news. She points to more study places and fewer applicants as an explanation for the drop in the score limits. – That it affects the lowest grade limit is not so surprising. Tveiterås also believes that more exam grades for those who have left upper secondary school after the pandemic may have led to a lower average grade. – Is the drop in applicants in the North Norwegian quota greater than the drop in applicants overall? – It is a bit early to say. We are continuing with the analyses, but we see a decrease in the number of applicants in general. Vice Chancellor Kathrine Tveiterås at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. Photo: UiT Norway’s Arctic University – Does the development worry you? – What is important to us is that we get motivated, qualified candidates for all our study places, and we do that to the highest degree within these studies. – It was not suitable to go to school Ever since childhood, Turmo has dreamed of becoming a doctor. But at the age of 17, she dropped out of upper secondary school in Mosjøen and moved alone to Oslo. She started school again in the capital, but the teenager was ill, and left after a short time. – I had a lot in my life that was difficult, so it wasn’t right for me to go to school right then, she says. It was not until several years later that Turmo made another attempt to obtain a diploma. She signed up for mathematics at a private upper secondary school in Oslo. – Suddenly I got fives and sixes, she says. Turmo has bought a flat in Tromsø, and has already found a roommate – who is also starting medicine. Photo: Ingvild Vik / news – I never thought I would be able to get such good grades. This spring, she finally got her diploma because of the 23/5 rule, and was able to apply for admission to higher education. Turmo does not think you need a full pot of sixes to be able to become a good doctor. – It may not be so easy to get through medical education if you have an average of two from upper secondary school, but I think it is good that you don’t just admit them with an average of six and all possible additional points on the diploma. The quota works In 2022, a government-appointed committee presented its report on the admissions system. There they note that students who enter the North Norwegian quota complete their studies to the same or higher degree than other students. They also write that several surveys substantiate that the North Norwegian quota works as intended. The Ministry of Education and Culture informs news that the government chose not to make major changes to the regional quotas when they submitted a report to the Storting on the admissions system this spring. 2,000 applied to medical education in Tromsø this year. There are fewer than last year, but still far more than there is room for. Photo: Ingvild Vik / news – UiT itself monitors its quotas and checks every year whether they are filled or have the right size, and the university contacts the ministry when they see a need for adjustments, the ministry writes to news. Tveiterås at UiT says that they cannot just look at one recording when making assessments of the size of the quotas. – We have to look at the long lines, both in applicant trends, in the demographic development, and so on, she says. Think smaller child cohorts can explain NIFU researcher Elisabeth Hovdhaugen believes part of the reason for the drop in score limits is due to lower grade point averages for those who leave upper secondary school after the pandemic. Another explanation could be that the children’s cohorts are getting smaller – especially in the north. Elisabeth Hovdhaugen, researcher at NIFU (Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research and Education). Photo: Press photo – It can also affect the point limits, because there are slightly fewer who compete for places, especially in the quota for first-time diplomas, says Hovdhaugen. From the mid-90s to the beginning of the 2000s, approximately 60,000 children were born each year. But after 2001 the birth figures dropped, to 56,000 new children a year. This means that since 2020 there have been fewer potential new study applicants – and less competition. At the same time, the number of births is not evenly distributed in the country. From 1995, the birth rate for Troms and Finnmark has fallen, while it has increased in Oslo. Open to stay In recent years, Turmo has worked in the healthcare system, and has enjoyed it immensely. The dream is to become a gynecologist or urologist. – Through my work, I have seen how doctors can change the lives of women who have been around with birth defects and urinary leaks, and didn’t know they could get help, she says. Turmo does not know if she will stay in the north after her education, but is open to the possibility. Photo: Ingvild Vik / news She doesn’t think she would have moved back to Northern Norway if it weren’t for the study opportunity. She is no stranger to the idea of staying in the north, even after her studies. – Now I get to try it, and I might really enjoy it, says the influencer. Published 15.08.2024, at 16.08
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1.5 grades separate to enter medicine in Tromsø and Trondheim – news Troms and Finnmark
