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Annual Plan for the Department of Political Science 2026 - 2028

Adopted by the Department Board on 4 December 2025. Translated from Norwegian with the assistance of Copilot.

Introduction

The Annual Plan is the Department of Political Science's (ISV) central governance document for realizing the department's strategy. The plan expresses the department board's overarching priorities. As far as possible, it should reflect the ambitions and priorities in ISV’s strategy and specify the measures needed to reach the strategic goals.

The Annual Plan guides decisions taken by the department’s leadership and forms a framework for the department’s activities both internally and externally.

The Annual Plan covers a three-year period but is rolling: it is revised annually.

ISV’s strategy and Annual Plan are based on the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Strategy 2030 and the University of Oslo’s Strategy 2030.

The annual plan is organized into five parts:


1. Research
2. Education
3. Public Relations and Dissemination
4. Organization, Work Environment and Personnel
5. C-REX

 

Part 1: Research

TTo reach the goals in the strategic plan, the department will primarily focus on structures and resources. Considering both volume and quality, research must be based on the initiative and expertise of the researchers themselves. The strategic plan emphasizes excellent research in various subfields, research infrastructure, open science, and research ethics. For the protection of research time, see also the plan’s section on organization, personnel, and finances.

 

Measures

Breadth and quality of research

  • Evaluate the department’s current seminar structure.
  • Formalize guidelines for inviting visiting researchers.
  • Allocate funding for competence development for permanent academic staff (e.g., methods courses).
  • Establish opportunities for permanent staff to apply for additional operating funds for conference travel when needed.
  • Maintain the Småforsk funding scheme as long as budget conditions allow.
  • Evaluate the policy for externally funded projects led by postdoctoral researchers.
  • Continue a forum for project leaders to discuss common issues.

 

Research infrastructure, open science, and research ethics

  • Consolidate local structures for work on research ethics and data protection.
  • Explore appropriate organization and training related to data protection and data management.
  • Assess needs and possibilities for funding data stewardship at the department.
  • Encourage academic staff to participate in and contribute to UiO’s courses in research integrity.
  • Highlight staff needs related to research infrastructure in relevant decision-making processes.

Responsible: Head of Research

 

Part 2: Education

The strategic plan emphasizes excellent teaching at all levels, close ties between teaching and research, program relevance for careers outside academia, disciplinary language skills, internationalization, learning environment, recruitment, dropout, and completion rates, as well as continuing and further education.

 

Measures

Excellence in teaching

  • Encourage the use of relevant student-active teaching methods, including digital tools.

  • Work to ensure varied assessment forms at BA and MA levels.

  • Review all BA courses with the aim of incorporating more research practice and methodological competence.
  • Continue to use the “ISV Forum” for sharing teaching experiences and best practices.
  • Systematically improve knowledge and awareness of challenges and opportunities related to the use of AI tools among both staff and students, in cooperation with students.

  • Develop an AI strategy for the department’s education and study programs.

     

Disciplinary language and internationalization

  •  Consider developing learning outcomes related to disciplinary language for all study programs and include disciplinary language as a topic in the review of BA programs.

 

Recruitment, progression, and completion 

  • Continue developing a comprehensive plan to strengthen recruitment at all levels, including:
    • exploring how to attract strong international applicants to English-language programs,
    • o systematically highlighting the inherent labour-market relevance of the programs on program and course pages and in teaching.
  • Complete the review of the structure and scope of the department’s study programs as part of UiO’s “study portfolio process” and assessments of teaching capacity.
  • Improve completion rates and reduce time-to-degree using evidence-based approaches to dropout, in collaboration with student bodies:
    • further develop the political science “start-up guide” and related measures at the BA level,
    • consider a preparatory course in mathematics, statistics, and R as part of semester planning at master’s level,
    • continue facilitating student body activities.
  • Further develop measures to integrate applied political science and practical experience into study programs and enhance contact with the labour market.
  • Develop measures to increase student participation in departmental research during the master’s thesis process.

 

PhD programme

  • Include goals for a more predictable PhD course offering in the work on study program scope.
  • Clarify procedures and responsibilities for supervisor changes.

 

Alumni support and continuing and further education (EVU)

  • Continue developing a durable and active alumni network, including promoting the network during the study period and testing various alumni initiatives.
  • Explore opportunities for smaller EVU offerings and consider possible future expansion of EVU in resource and staffing analyses.

 

Resource use and teaching planning 

  • Implement the new teaching-planning tool (STAPLAN).
  • Complete work on improved onboarding of new employees concerning teaching routines, practices, and regulations.
  • Improve internal web pages so information on teaching routines becomes easier to find.
  • Implement new role descriptions related to teaching.

Responsible: Head of Education

 

Part 3: Public Relations and Dissemination

The strategic plan emphasizes that the department should be an open educational and research institution that ensures that established and new knowledge is used in society. Dissemination of research findings should be considered a natural part of the research process and normally included in all project plans.

 

Measures

  • Staff should be encouraged and supported in creating dissemination plans by the research and communications administration.
  • The department should facilitate participation in non-academic conferences/seminars, membership in public committees and expert groups, production of teaching materials, and publication in popular science outlets.
  • The department should ensure that staff who want to engage with the media are visible on the department’s and UiO’s websites.
  • Staff needing courses in opinion writing or media training should have access to such courses.
  • The department’s social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky) should be used to share new research publications, projects, doctoral defences, research awards, and open academic events.
  • Department leadership should continue to highlight departmental needs to the faculty communications office and develop effective forms of cooperation

Responsible: Head of Research

 

Part 4: Organization, Work Environment and Personnel

The strategic plan points to the need for organizational development. Following a period of substantial growth in temporary staff (due to increased external funding), more international recruitment, and the introduction of several digital teaching platforms, there is a need for measures to ensure clear responsibilities, better information flow, real opportunities for participation, transparency in decisions, good organization of research and teaching activities, development of teaching and research support systems, and improved resource management to secure actual research time.

Regarding personnel, the plan highlights several considerations: capacity for research and teaching across diverse subfields, the relationship between permanent and temporary academic positions, equality goals, and emphasis on pedagogical qualifications during recruitment.

Below are key measures, including implementation of the action plan developed after the 2024 ARK work environment survey.

 

Measures

Organization

  • Consolidate subfield groups organized by thematic areas according to established guidelines.
  • Ensure thorough training for subject field group leaders regarding responsibilities and tasks.
  • Implement new role descriptions for all teaching-related leadership roles and the corresponding administrative roles.
  • Establish a “database” for continuous overview of staff teaching competencies.
  • Implement new routines for planning and distributing teaching tasks within and across subfields using STAPLAN.
  • Develop clear frameworks for determining course offerings that align with actual teaching capacity.
  • Implement adjustments to semester organization at the master’s level.
  • Advocate for faculty-level tools to estimate the costs of changes in course offerings.

 

Work environment

  • Implement the measures developed following the 2024 ARK workplace survey, including enhanced onboarding of new staff.
  • Clarify the division of responsibilities between subfield group leaders and personnel managers.

 

Personnel

  • Prioritize PhD and postdoctoral positions in external funding applications, while also assessing whether other types of positions may be more suitable.
  • Implement a revised career-support program for postdocs, aligned with new regulations (including existing mentoring schemes and grant-writing support).
  • Prioritize combined research-and-teaching positions in the recruitment of permanent staff.
  • Explore possibilities, benefits, and drawbacks of creating tenure-track positions at the postdoctoral level.
  • Explicitly consider goals for breadth and diversity of academic competence and community-building in all recruitments.
  • Formalize precise, evidence-based guidelines for recruitment processes to minimize bias.
  • Offer competence-building courses in administration, personnel management, research leadership, research ethics, educational leadership, and dissemination when needed.
  • Encourage all staff to complete PLIVO training.
  • Create individual Norwegian language training plans for permanent staff with non-Scandinavian backgrounds.

Responsible: Head of Department

 

Part 5: C-REX – Centre for Research on Extremism

The Centre for Research on Extremism (C-REX) is a research center at ISV specializing in right-wing extremism, hate crime, and political violence. The centre opened on 1 February 2016 and is scheduled to end on 31 January 2026. Its main strategic goal is to be a leading research environment on extremism and related topics and to serve as a hub for building an interdisciplinary research community in Norway. Its researchers aim to publish and present research at a high international level and disseminate findings to practitioners, the public, and academia. C-REX collaborates with other UiO units and with researchers and research groups at other institutions.

In Prop. 1 S (2025–2026), it is proposed to fund an extension of C-REX through 2026 pending a new call for research funding on extremism by the Research Council of Norway. If the national budget is adopted as proposed, C-REX will not be discontinued on 31 January but extended through 2026.

The funding extension will enable the continuation of existing contracts and hiring of temporary research positions or research assistant positions, subject to external funding for specific research purposes. Department leadership will assess appropriate measures in consultation with the center leader.

 

 

Published Apr. 7, 2026 3:17 PM - Last modified Apr. 8, 2026 2:18 PM
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