We compare students in Oslo with each other and with students in other selected study municipalities, including Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Kristiansand, and Tromsø.
The report shows that Oslo holds 29 percent of the total student population in Norway (88,912 students). Universities and colleges in Oslo recruit students from across the country, with only 17 percent of active students in 2023 having grown up in Oslo. This percentage increases to 28 percent when including those who grew up in the surrounding municipalities of Bærum, Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, and Rælingen. Universities and colleges in Oslo have a slightly lower proportion of male students compared to the other study municipalities. One in three students in Oslo is 30 years or older.
Bachelor students in Oslo have a slightly lower completion rate than bachelor students in the other relevant municipalities. The completion rate among Oslo students in 2-year master's programs was lower than both the national average and that of the selected municipalities. The results differ for 5-year master's programs, where Oslo students had one of the highest completion rates in the country.
First-time students in Oslo, along with those in Stavanger, had the highest dropout rates in the first year of study. In 3-year bachelor's programs, 29 percent of new students in Oslo dropped out, with 14 percent not being students the following year, 10 percent transferring to another institution, and 5 percent changing study programs. Among the universities and colleges in Oslo, there were significant variations, with the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, and Lovisenberg Diaconal University College having lower dropout rates than average. The MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, and the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology had the highest dropout rates, with around 50 percent of students dropping out during the first year. Overall, dropout rates were higher in bachelor's programs than in longer master's programs.
A year after graduation, 88 percent of those from universities and colleges in Oslo were employed. Excluding those who continued studying during the same period, the employment rate was 93 percent. The largest institution in Oslo, the University of Oslo, had a lower proportion of graduates in employment (85 percent) than at the other universities and colleges in Oslo.
73 percent of who were employed a year after graduating from a university or college in Oslo had a relevant job, defined here as occupations in management, academic professions, and higher education professions. Seven out of ten worked full-time, and over half were employed in the private sector. Over half of Oslo students who were employed a year after graduation also lived in Oslo. Those who more often remained in Oslo were men, younger students (29 years or younger), Norwegian-born people with immigrant parents, and those employed in the state administration. Oslo also recruits graduates from other study municipalities, with 30 percent of graduates from Trondheim and 22 percent from Bergen living and working in Oslo. Those who were employed a year after graduation from a university or college in Oslo rarely lived in rural municipalities (3 percent).