University of Oslo

The University of Oslo is a public research university in Oslo, Norway. It is the oldest university in Norway, established in 1811 as the Royal Frederick University, named for King Frederick VI of Denmark and Norway. It took its current name in 1939. Before the name change it was nicknamed "The Royal Frederick's", and people also called it simply Universitetet. It was the only university in Norway until the University of Bergen was founded in 1946.

The university began as a continuation of the shared University of Copenhagen, and the two share many traditions. Its early job was to educate civil servants, parliamentary representatives and government ministers, and it became a centre for surveying the country's culture, language, history and folk traditions. After Norway's independence in 1905 it supplied graduates to education, health services and public administration. The original neoclassical campus sits in central Oslo and now houses the Faculty of Law. Most other faculties are at the Blindern campus in the suburban West End, and the Faculty of Medicine is split between several university hospitals in the Oslo area.

Teaching is organised through faculties covering theology, law, medicine, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, dentistry and education. The university has around 27,700 students and employs around 6,000 people. Five researchers affiliated with it have been Nobel laureates and three have won the Turing Award. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in the university's Atrium from 1947 to 1989 and in 2020, and the Abel Prize has been awarded there since 2003.

The Study in Norway list (HK-dir) shows 60 English-taught degree programmes here: one at Bachelor's level and 59 at Master's level. Subjects include humanities and theology, education, physics, materials engineering, science, chemistry, computer science and IT, data science, development studies, economics, curriculum and instruction, entrepreneurship and history. The NOKUT institutional category is university, and the DBH register lists it as a Universiteter institution owned by Kunnskapsdepartementet.

For an international student, applications go through the institution's own system, so check its website for deadlines and document requirements. Students from outside the EU/EEA normally need a study permit from UDI. EU/EEA and Swiss students are normally exempt from tuition at state institutions, while other degree students pay an institutional fee.