The establishment of ISV
In 1947, the government (the King’s council) granted permission to pursue a magister’s degree (magistergrad), an advanced research degree, in political science at the University of Oslo. The Department of Political Science (ISV) was established in 1957. By that time, political science was already a well-established field at several universities internationally.
It was legal experts and historians who advocated for the creation of a dedicated political science department in Oslo, seeking to give fields such as constitutional law, international law, and the history of political ideas greater prominence at the university while also addressing the increased student interest in these topics. Graduates would be able to find employment in journalism and diplomacy.
In the 1950s, around 40 students graduated with a magister’s degree in political science, many of whom were also recruited for research positions. Since then, political science departments have been established at most universities and colleges in Norway, but the department in Oslo has always been the largest in terms of staff, student count, and academic breadth.
The early years of the Department
Thomas Christian Wyller held a magister degree in political science and became the first to earn a doctorate in the field in 1957. The same year, he was appointed as associate professor (then called dosent, not førsteamanuensis) and led the department from 1957 to 1965. In 1958, the department started to offer teaching for the newly established one-year unit (grunnfag) in political science. Initially, the department was located in the University of Oslo's facilities at the former Halling School building in Homansbyen, before moving in 1967 to the newly built Eilert Sundt’s hus at Blindern, alongside other social science disciplines. ISV became part of the newly established Faculty of Social Sciences in 1963.
At this point in time, there were already established several research institutes outside the university in the Oslo region focusing on areas such as international relations, the study of Norwegian voters, and political institutions. Most researchers here were recruited from the University of Oslo, and a close research collaboration developed between ISV staff and these external research institutions. Crucial to ISV's development was the foundation Institute for Social Research (established in 1950). Here, researchers drew inspiration from American behavioral studies. Key figures included Stein Rokkan and Henry Valen, who established an internationally oriented research group focusing on electoral studies, large population surveys, quantitative data analysis, and group organization as important elements.
Academic-pedagogical reforms and educational success
Over time, several members of the electoral studies community were recruited to ISV. Since the 1970s, systematic collection and analysis of quantitative data has been central to the department’s research profile. Political science was developed as academic fields of research rather than as a discipline offering a professional education and degree. There was limited emphasis on a common academic core that could define students' competencies and skills.
In 1965, ISV appointed its first professor, Knut Dahl Jacobsen. He specialized in studies of public policy and administration and led the institute (as bestyrer) from 1965 to 1968. During this period, a new educational structure was established in Norway: a separate licentiate (embedseksamen) in social sciences (the cand. polit. degree) with introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses modeled after the cand. philol. degree in the humanities. The Department of Political Science wholeheartedly embraced this new degree, which included a major with various courses and a thesis that was significantly shorter than the former magister theses. Teaching was divided into four main areas: public policy and administration, political behavior, international politics, and political theory. Although "political behavior" later changed its name to the broader "comparative politics," in line with established sub-disciplines internationally, this division has influenced teaching up to the present day.
The cand. polit. reform allowed students considerable freedom in choosing their educational path. The teaching in advanced courses was largely shaped by the instructors' interests and expertise. Analysis of political institutions and processes, including their causes and effects, constituted the closest approximation to a core academic focus. An important addition to the teaching portfolio was the introduction of common methodology instruction for all students. A key resource was Ottar Hellevik's book, Research Methodology in Sociology and Political Science (Forskningsmetode i sosiologi og statsvitenskap), published in the early 1970s. A comprehensive Norwegian textbook that covered the entire discipline of political science was first published with Øyvind Østerud's Political Science: An Introduction to Political Analysis (Statsvitenskap: innføring i politisk analyse) in 1991.
Political science became popular among students, and increased enrollment led to the creation of more academic positions. While many graduates from the early cohorts found jobs in research and teaching, those who graduated in the 1970s and 1980s increasingly secured positions within public administration, particularly in ministries and directorates. In the 1990s, many students also chose to specialize in topics related to international relations, with several finding employment in diplomacy and various organizations. Political science as a university discipline was also a draw for youth engaged in party politics, resulting in many being recruited into public political offices, political parties, and interest organizations.
Internationalization of research activities
Much of the research at the department until around 1970 had a "Norwegian" focus. Over time, several factors contributed to a stronger international orientation. Researchers who had studied abroad were recruited, and the international research conferences organized by the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and, to some extent, the International Political Science Association (IPSA), had a significant impact. Notably, the annual thematic workshops organized by the ECPR, of which Stein Rokkan was a founding member, helped integrate ISV staff into international research projects and publications. When Francesco Kjellberg served as Secretary-General of IPSA from 1988 to 1994, IPSA's secretariat was also relocated to ISV.
In a subject evaluation conducted in 2002, five key thematic areas were identified as prominent within the department: international negotiations and organizations; constitutional issues; parties, representation, elections, and public opinion; organizational theoretical studies of administrative development; and municipalities and regions.
The research activities at the department were a mix of individual projects and external collaboration, increasingly with colleagues from other Norwegian universities, particularly in Bergen and Trondheim. Additionally, the establishment of semi-internal research environments (i.e., centers), such as ARENA (Center for European Studies, from 2004) and later C-REX (Center for Research on Extremism, from 2016), became significant.
Overall, this meant that ISV organized the teaching of its staff, while research was largely conducted individually through collaborative projects outside the department. This outward-facing project organization was also a natural part of the second public Power and Democracy Study (Maktutredningen, 1998-2003), which was led by Øyvind Østerud at the request of the government.
ISV at the turn of the millennium
During the 1990s, a generational shift occurred within the academic staff. The pioneering generation retired, and with funding of new positions, recruitment increased. This led to more opportunities for internal collaboration on joint research projects.
For a long time, there were almost exclusively men in permanent academic positions at the department. Traditionally, political science was a male-dominated field, and women were not recruited into permanent positions until the 1990s. In 2000, ISV hired its first female professor, Hege Skjeie. After the turn of the millennium, the gender balance at the department changed significantly, so that by 2024, women constituted just under 40% of the permanent academic staff.
The study reform introduced in 2003 brought a new degree structure, replacing the old cand. mag. and cand. polit. degrees with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The structure was to be Europeanized, and the time students spent on the foundational part of their studies was intended to be shortened. Students were now required to apply for admission to the various programs, and teaching was organized into courses with varying credit points (ECTS). The studies became more tightly organized, and at the master’s level, the size of the master’s thesis was reduced somewhat to ensure that most students could submit their thesis and obtain their master’s degree within the standard timeframe (two years).
The reform also led to an increase in international student exchanges through the Erasmus program. In 2003, ISV introduced a new international master’s program, "Peace and Conflict Studies" (PECOS). This program was interdisciplinary and had significantly fewer places than the master's program in political science. In 2019, History withdrew from the program, and PECOS became a purely political science program focused on a specific thematic field.
All the changes in the educational structure also required more administrative positions at the department. In the 2000s, more than 100 political scientists graduated from ISV each year.
Internationalization and growth in research activities
In the 2010s, ISV experienced yet another generational shift, while the department continued to grow. International recruitment increased through international job postings and a greater number of foreign applicants for positions, alongside changes in the research framework conditions. The share of externally funded research increased, contributing to a greater degree of project organization within the department. One reason for this was that research grants from national and European research councils were increasingly awarded to large projects that required new fixed-term recruitment positions (PhD and postdoctoral fellows) and temporary researcher positions. As result, the number of staff at ISV rose from around 70 to 120 within a couple of years after 2020. External research funding grew in the same period from approximately 20 million to 40 million NOK, accounting for nearly 40% of ISV's overall budget by 2024.
The increase in external funding has somewhat changed the research dynamics within the department. There are many different research project groups active internally at any given time. Although externally funded PhD fellows and postdocs also often teach, they typically have more research time than permanent staff. This has contributed to the establishment of more active research groups with their own seminar activities. Since 2010, there have also been internal collaborative projects where permanent staff have worked together to develop databases and conduct joint data collection - data that is not tailored to address a specific issue but can be utilized by multiple researchers within a framework covering various research themes.
At the same time, the ISV maintains a high level of teaching activities and dissemination efforts. Since its inception, the department has had several staff members who are highly visible in the public sphere. In 2024, employees were credited with over 800 mentions in editor-controlled Norwegian media. That same year, ISV had a total of 1,400 students enrolled across five different study programs, and the department continues to graduate more than 100 political scientists annually, who go on to work in various parts of both the public and private sector.
Thanks are due to Professor Emeritus and former Head of Department Knut Heidar for drafting the initial version of this article, as well as to Professor Emeritus Harald Baldersheim, Professor Emeritus and former Head of Department Morten Egeberg, and Professor Emeritus and former Head of Department Bjørn Erik Rasch for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Relevant literature
Heidar, Knut, Egeberg, Morten og Nordby, Trond, red., Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift, 3:1997 Temanummer: Statsvitenskap 50 år. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Kuhnle, Stein, red., Det politiske samfunn. Linjer i norsk statsvitenskap, 1986. Oslo: Tano.
NFR, Statsvitenskapelig forskning i Norge. Status og utfordringer, 2002, see https://kudos.dfo.no/documents/5381/files/5234.pdf
Nickelsen, Trine: «SV-fakultetet fyller femti». https://www.uio.no/forskning/forskningsnytt/apollon/artikler/2013/2_sv50.html
Stalsberg, Linn, «En statsvitenskap blir født». https://www.muv.uio.no/uios-historie/fag/samfunnsvitenskap/statsvitenskap/en-statsvitenskap-blir-fodt.html
Thue, Fredrik W. og Helsvig, Kim G., 1945-1975. Den store transformasjonen. Bd 5 in Universitetet i Oslo 1811-2011, see «Statsvitenskap: På jakt etter et teoretisk grunnlag», p. 177-78.
Underdal, Arild, «Norsk statsvitenskap 60 år: Hvor står vi, hvor går vi?» in Norsk Statsvitenskapelig Tidsskrift, vol 23 (2012), no. 3