The Prime Minister's speech at the Welcome Ceremony for all new students

Translated from Norwegian (and checked against delivery)

Dear students,

Welcome!

Congratulations on your admission to the University of Oslo! This is an important day ­– for each and every one of you.

It is an important day for the university, and it is an important day for Norway as well. Congratulations again, and welcome!

Today, each of you is starting a new chapter – in your own lives, and also in the larger Norwegian story we will create together.

Knowledge

Think of your student card as a key to a much larger world. Keys that can unlock solutions that will shape our society in the years to come.

What you learn here, the questions you ask, the knowledge you gain access to and the knowledge you help to develop – all of this will play a part in shaping our future.

As the Rector said: knowledge about new medical approaches, phasing out fossil energy, fighting extremism, the use of artificial intelligence. Or about how to understand the changes taking place in countries around us. All this and so much more. The combined reading lists of all the different faculties encompass a vast array of subjects.

But some may ask: What is the use of studying – in today’s bleak landscape, with war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East and the ongoing global climate crisis? Is this really the time to sit down and study?

My answer to that is that studying is always worthwhile. Together we can work to change the world around us. Our attitudes and our actions make a difference.

A couple of weeks ago, I met Magdi from Karpe at a festival. We talked about the Middle East and the tensions between various groups here in Norway too. Magdi’s main point was that we must do all we can to prevent the divides from growing so deep and so wide that they can no longer be bridged.

What is most important, as we both agreed, what is special about Norway today and sets it apart from many other countries is that we trust one another.

We must preserve this – and never take it for granted.

And precisely this, trust, will be crucial in the journey you are embarking on. Because some of the most important things that make Norway Norway are a high level of trust, a high degree of social equality and a strong sense of fellowship.

All this fills me with confidence that we can change the world around us if we work together. That mistakes made by people can be rectified by people. That together we can find good solutions.

This is echoed in the University of Oslo’s Strategy 2030, which states that the university will ‘educate students with the knowledge, ability and willingness to create a better world’. This is ambitious, but it is exactly what is called for, and this is what you are venturing into now.

You will do a lot of reading – which I also greatly enjoy. This summer I read a book by a professor at this university, Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde. It was about King Magnus the Lawmender’s work to create the first law code for all of Norway, not just parts of the country. The Law Code of 1274 – 750 years ago – was one of the first of its kind in Europe. I highly recommend this book.

On the first page, it says: ‘In honour of P. A. Munch’.

Who was he? P. A. Munch, who stands here, looking out over us. In the 1800s, Peter Andreas Munch established the study of history as an academic discipline in Norway and wrote – among many other works – Det norske folks historie (‘History of the Norwegian People’) – in eight volumes. And there would have been more volumes if he had lived longer.

He was a pioneer. He built a foundation of knowledge that today's professors and students use to develop new knowledge.

Because academic books build on the writings of others, new knowledge extends the knowledge of others. We all stand on the shoulders of one another. And now you too will be a part of this – a part of academia.

Knowledge is the product of curiosity, wonder, questioning, trial and error.

But knowledge also comes from experience. Like when you hike a path up to a mountaintop, sit down and suddenly see things in a new and broader perspective, things you haven’t seen before.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant, born 300 years ago, established that there are two paths to knowledge ­– thought and experience. We learn with our intellect – that is, with our heads – and we also learn with our feelings, or senses.

Use both of these in your studies. Not one without the other.

Education for all

Students,

It is fantastic to see such a large crowd here ­– and you are only a fraction of all the students at the university. When the University of Oslo –­ Norway’s first university –­ opened in 1813, it had just 18 students and five professors. Today, there are well over 26 000 students and 7 200 employees.

This summer, 110 000 applicants were offered places in higher education institutions across Norway, including 12 000 here at the University of Oslo.

These figures tell us a great deal about how our country has changed ­– and continues to change. That higher education has become accessible to all, funded by and for society as a whole.

This is why all of you are here today, regardless of where you come from or where you are headed.

Education for all is what led to the creation of the society we live in today.

Education for all has enabled us to exploit our hydropower and petroleum resources, to build a high-quality health system and to develop advanced technologies and export businesses. I often ask: why did people leave Norway in the late 1800s, leaving behind a country with watercourses, oil and gas, and fjords for fish farming? Well, of course, they had no way of knowing. Knowledge about the potential of these resources did not exist. But knowledge evolved, and development followed. And there is still much more to come.

Education for all continues to expand our knowledge base, generating the ideas and solutions that will enable us – together – to achieve the green transition, develop renewable energy, cut emissions and create jobs. 

Five pieces of advice

Students,

This is your first day as a university student ­– a day to remember. Like the Rector, I remember my own first day well.

Let me take this opportunity to share a few things I experienced and to pass on some personal advice – since it is now your turn:

I have five pieces of advice, and they are quite straightforward. It’s up to you what you do with them, of course.

First, use your time well.

Don’t worry about not having enough time. Take a deep breath and relax. Studying is more than just words, numbers and reading lists. Remember to look up from the page.

This building to the left with the clock in the window facing Karl Johans gate is known as the Clock Building.

Henrik Ibsen set his pocket watch by this clock on his daily walk to the Grand Café. The clock was also in clear view of the students who hung around the popular cafés across the street.

Let this clock be a reminder that time is passing, but don’t let it dominate your life.

My point is this: Keep an eye on the clock, but not too much. Look at your screens, but not too much.

Because otherwise you may miss out on what is happening right here and right now, with the people around you.

Second, use the city, this incredible city.

Get to know Oslo, from east to west, from the fjord to the forest.

In my experience, you can read a book in a library, but you can also read it sitting under a tree. Good ideas often emerge while out in the open air.

Third, use your voice.

Take part in student societies, in discussions, in the media. Help to build on some of the things we are good at here in Norway – open and frank debates, democracy that accommodates differences of opinion, where we can find good solutions together. In our country, we may have to contend with opponents, but we never see each other as enemies.

As university students you are now a part of something greater than yourselves: the defence of values that are under pressure across the world. You are part of the resistance against anti-democratic, authoritarian forces and ‘fake news’.

Forces leading to ever-deeper polarisation. Forces that are the source of hard-line statements that scare others away.

Be a counterforce to all this! Use your freedom of speech and promote tolerance and a healthy culture of expression.

Here I would like to commend the University of Oslo for its major, multidisciplinary research initiative on democracy. This initiative is extremely important.

Fourth, use each other’s knowledge and skills.

The benefit of attending a university is that we learn more together than on our own. As in many other areas of life: it is our interaction with others that forms us as people.

As newcomers you are all in the same situation. Don’t wait for others to set up a study group – take the initiative and set one up yourself.

All of you wearing red T-shirts – and there are many of you – you provide practical help and bring people together.

My fifth piece of advice is perhaps the most important: use your whole self.

One thing I have learned in life is this: how you develop as a person is just as important as your grades, which you will now be working so hard to achieve.

Your years as a student will be formative ones. You can list your academic results on a CV, but there is no room on a CV for what you are like as a person ­– the fact that you are trustworthy, likeable, or good at collaborating with others – qualities that a friend might highlight in a birthday speech.

And trust me, these qualities are among the most important things an employer will want to know about you. Bear in mind that your future will also depend on how you develop as an individual, a colleague, a friend, and a member of society.

In conclusion,

The university is founded on a commitment to free and independent thought –freedom of thought as a human right – and to the application of knowledge. All of you are now entrusted with defending and strengthening this edifice.

Studying is itself an exercise in freedom. I urge you to think out loud, think big, and think free!

Have a wonderful journey!