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1 April: Doctoral degrees awarded at Norwegian higher education institutions in 2024

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Statistics about

Research personnel

The statistics on research personnel provide an overview of human resources for research and development (R&D) in the higher education sector and the institute sector. It includes R&D personnel and R&D full-time equivalents (FTE) and covers aspects such as awarded doctoral degrees, types of positions, gender, and immigration status.

Updated: 24 March 2025
Next update: Not yet determined
Modified: Table 2 was updated with figures from 2024 on 1 April 2025.

Selected figures from this statistics

  • R&D full-time equivalents (FTE), researchers
    R&D full-time equivalents (FTE), researchers
    Full-time equivalents (FTE), researchersChange in FTE, researchers (percentage)
    202220232022 - 2023
    All sectors40 11740 8931.9
    Business enterprise sector18 40319 7167.1
    Institute sector7 1037 1841.1
    Higher education sector14 61113 993-4.2
    Explanation of symbols
  • Doctoral degrees by awarding institution, last 5 years.
    Doctoral degrees by awarding institution, last 5 years.
    20202021202220232024
    Total1 6341 6011 5621 6121 850
    University of Bergen242245220215229
    University of Oslo497428424427512
    Norwegian University of Science and Technology406412399429497
    UiT - The Arctic University of Norway117132121117111
    Norwegian University of Life Sciences6686688473
    University of Stavanger7452606187
    University of Agder5144435867
    Nord University1828342834
    Oslo Metropolitan University3149454756
    University of South-Eastern Norway2927363041
    Molde University College - Specialized University in Logistics62573
    NHH Norwegian School of Economics1317192021
    The Oslo School of Architecture and Design78627
    MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society44678
    Norwegian School of Sport Sciences11118813
    Norwegian Academy of Music7410109
    BI Norwegian Business School71161610
    Oslo National Academy of the Arts71446
    VID Specialized University10812916
    Volda University College01431
    Western Norway University of Applied Sciences610151226
    Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences2521171822
    StatBank source table 13521 was updated with figures from 2024 on 1 April 2025.
    Explanation of symbols
  • R&D personnel by sector and year
    R&D personnel by sector and year
    Higher education sectorInstitute sectorBusiness enterprise sectorTotal
    201533 16611 83231 06876 066
    201634 94812 24133 49580 684
    201736 31512 58236 08884 976
    201836 91912 89536 79686 610
    201937 95513 06138 84889 864
    202039 16113 57638 60491 341
    202140 63914 02039 58294 241
    202241 29014 28841 20196 779
    202342 03514 48842 17798 700
    202434 927......
    Explanation of symbols
  • R&D full-time equivalents (FTE) by sector and year
    R&D full-time equivalents (FTE) by sector and year
    Higher education sectorInstitute sectorBusiness enterprise sectorTotal
    201413 0109 35517 93240 297
    201513 9529 37019 08742 409
    201614 9379 36519 61643 918
    201715 6759 35521 20546 235
    201816 2379 38520 97946 602
    201916 9579 58722 17848 722
    202016 1269 73123 09048 947
    202117 44110 18723 74551 373
    202218 02110 36125 19053 572
    202317 40910 51926 66854 596
    Explanation of symbols
  • Researchers and academic personnel by sector of performance, immigration category and year
    Researchers and academic personnel by sector of performance, immigration category and year
    20142018202120222023
    All sectors
    Total31 74336 24239 27639 78640 061
    Immigrants8 11310 72212 74513 40513 912
    Norwegian-born to immigrant parents127190269271276
    The rest of the population23 63025 52026 26226 11025 873
    Institute sector
    Total7 4147 3327 8647 9138 009
    Immigrants1 8602 0962 4922 5882 719
    Norwegian-born to immigrant parents....414335
    The rest of the population5 5545 2365 3315 2825 255
    Higher education sector
    Total20 07823 91526 04626 67126 730
    Immigrants5 3827 5599 1469 72510 054
    Norwegian-born to immigrant parents....145150149
    The rest of the population14 69616 35616 75516 79616 527
    Health enterprises
    Total4 2514 9955 3665 2025 322
    Immigrants8711 0671 1071 0921 139
    Norwegian-born to immigrant parents....837892
    The rest of the population3 3803 9284 1764 0324 091
    Explanation of symbols

About the statistics

The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 5 December 2023.

Research and development (R&D)

R&D is creative activity conducted systematically to gain increased knowledge, including knowledge about people, culture, and society. It also involves new applications of available knowledge.

It can be challenging to distinguish between R&D and other related activities. Important criteria that must be met for the activity to be considered R&D are that it contains something new, is creative, has uncertainty related to the result, is systematic, and can be transferred and/or reproduced.

R&D personnel

All personnel directly engaged in research and development (R&D), including researchers and technical/administrative staff.

R&D full-time equivalent (FTE)

The R&D work performed by R&D personnel over the course of one year, converted to full-time equivalents.

The relationship between R&D personnel and R&D full-time equivalent (FTE)

R&D personnel is the number of individuals working with R&D, usually divided into two main groups: researchers and academic staff and technical/administrative staff. R&D FTE indicate how much time R&D personnel spend on research and development work. If a person works full-time and dedicates half of their working time to R&D, this constitutes 0.5 R&D FTEs.

Positions among the R&D personnel

Researchers and academic staff

  • Professor
  • Docent
  • Head of research and development
  • Associate professor
  • First lecturer
  • Assistant professor
  • Other permanent scientific positions
  • Postdoctoral fellow
  • Researcher
  • Chief physician
  • PhD research fellow
  • Scientific assistant

Technical/administrative staff

  • Administrative staff
  • Technical staff

R&D personnel are categorized into the following fields of R&D depending on the institute to which they are affiliated:

  • Humanities and the arts
  • Social sciences
  • Natural sciences
  • Engineering and technology
  • Medicine and health sciences
  • Agricultural sciences

Other key variables

  • Institution and department affiliation
  • Date of birth
  • Sex
  • Name
  • Job title
  • Position fraction
  • Source of funding
  • Higher education
  • Doctorate degree
  • Citizenship at the time of disputation
  • Starting date and disputation date of the PhD program
  • Degree title
  • Field of R&D and subject for the dissertation
  • The language in which the dissertation is written

The statistics on diversity in research use the Standard classification of immigration categories:

  1. Born in Norway with Norwegian-born parents

  2. Immigrants

  3. Norwegian-born with immigrant parents

  1. Foreign-born with one Norwegian-born parent

  2. Norwegian-born with one foreign-born parent

  3. Foreign-born with Norwegian-born parents

The doctoral degree statistics use the Standard classification of country and citizenship.

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