Around 13,000 Norwegian-educated students each year have to shell out a total of over NOK 20 million in fees to get the authorization they need to be able to start their profession. That means NOK 1,665 per student. The case processing is, so to speak, automated for most people. Minutes after the fee is paid, the authorization is in the box. So there is not much for paperwork that the students shell out for. Those who do not pay the fee are not allowed to start work. The scheme applies to 33 occupations. news wrote about the authorization scheme this summer. – Congratulations on the day, sort of. “You have chosen to become a nurse, now you are done. We will have NOK 1,700,” said the newly qualified nurse, Sturla Hveding, at the time. Now, two and a half months after the news article, Hveding can smile a little. NOK 750 – It’s great that the fee is being cut – but I still stand by the fact that this should have been free, says Hveding to news. He himself ended up paying the fee of NOK 1,665 this autumn to get the authorization he had worked for over three years in education. Now the government has sent out proposals for cuts in the authorization scheme for nurses and the 32 other professions: That the fee should now be changed to NOK 750. A cut of almost a thousand pounds, that is. Nursing wrote about the proposal first. The Norwegian Nurses’ Association (NSF) has for several years worked to remove the fee completely. – You can call it half a breakthrough with an aftertaste, says Sigrid Husøy Larsen. She is the leader of the NSF student. Basically, she believes, like Hveding, that it should be completely free to get the authorization. – It is good that they are lowering it, but then there will be an increase in expenses for those who come from abroad – in other words, a workforce we are completely dependent on, says Larsen. – What they have done is just shift the expenses to the foreign students, says Sigrid Husøy Larsen. Photo: Kristin Henriksen / NSF Bad welcome Today’s authorization fee is the same for all 33 professions, regardless of whether the education was taken in Norway, in the EU/EEA or in a country outside the EU/EEA. If the new proposal goes through, there will be a change to this. While the proposal is that Norwegian graduates should pay NOK 750 to get their authorization, the following rates are proposed for others: Educated within the EU/EEA: NOK 2,500 Educated from third countries: NOK 3,500 – What they have done is just shift the expenses to the foreign the students. It is very special to be met with such a fee when you offer labor that we need. Being met with a fee in excess of NOK 2,500 does not scream “welcome here to work”, says Larsen. In the consultation letter from the Ministry of Health and Care, it is stated that applications from graduates outside the EU/EEA cost on average twice as much as applications from graduates within the EU/EEA. The hearing deadline is 14 November. The plan is for the new tariffs to apply from 1 January 2023. news has been in contact with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Before the government has made a decision, they will neither give interviews nor answer questions by e-mail about this matter.
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Nurses must pay a fee to obtain authorization and a job. Now the fee can be cut – news Trøndelag
