Universities and colleges - StatRes (discontinued), 2008

Expenditure on employee compensations for the same year amounted to NOK 16.7 billion and accounted for over 65 per cent of total expenditure. The rate of growth in personnel costs, which reached more than 9 per cent from 2007 to 2008, rose at a faster pace than the rate of growth in operation expenditures (7.6 per cent). The increase was largely fuelled by the increase in wage growth level and the increase in the number of contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves, which increased by 2.4 per cent in relation to 2007. The budget allocated to the purchase of goods and services represented 35 per cent of the total expenditure

Continued increase in man-years

The number of contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves reached 29 281 in the state-owned universities and colleges in 2008. Of these, 19 260 were in universities. The increase was somewhat more than two per cent for the last year. In the period from 2004 to 2008, the increase surpassed 11 per cent.

The share of the contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves that are teaching, research and dissemination positions varied between the educational institutions from 43 to 69 per cent in 2008. As regards universities, this share has increased from 54 per cent in 2004 to 56 per cent in 2008. The rest of the positions are administrative and support positions. These variations can have different explanations. For instance, the teaching and research activities can vary and require different kinds of personnel, and the institutions may have made different choices on whether to purchase support functions or to employ such personnel. The man-years statistics includes employed personnel only.

Fewer completed 60-credit points

Students at the state-owned universities and colleges produced 118 686 credit point during the 2007/08 academic year at an expense of over NOK 214 000 per credit point-unit. This was 7 000 study credit less than 2007, despite a substantial growth in operating expenditures, with almost 8 per cent. During the same period, a record 199 000 students enrolled at state-owned universities and colleges. Among students who actively completed credit points, 84 per cent, a share that remains stable in comparison with the academic year 2006/07, the average was 42.3 credits per person; a decrease of 1 per cent from 2006/07.