| THE EDUCATION AND PRACTICE OF THE GEODETIC SURVEYOR IN WESTERN EUROPE | |
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APPENDIX D15 - Norway (Population 4,3 million) ( Refs. A15, B15.1, B15.2 , C15) |
NJKF/NIF (Norges Jordskiftekandidatforening), faglig gruppe av NIF - NJKF/NIF. NIF - Norske Sivilingeniørers Forening - Norwegian Association of Surveyors, Professional Group of Chartered Engineers, and
NKTF Norges Karttekniske Forbund - Norwegian Association for Cartography, Geodesy, Hydrography and Photogrammetry.
Member fees to professional institutions are:
The educational programme for land surveyors at university level, came into force in 1898 at the Agricultural University (NLH) at Aas, after decision by the Parliament in 1897. The reason for starting this programme, was the need for professionals to solve the problems concerning land consolidation - remembrement - in the rural districts of Norway.
Some years later an educational programme for geodetic surveyors, was established at the Norwegian Institute of Technology at Trondheim, to cover the need for geodetic surveyors for engineering surveys for public and private use. Both universities offer now programmes in geodesy.
After 1945 when the needs for professionals in land surveying increased, educational programmes for technicians and engineers in surveying started at engineering and agricultural schools. Two of these schools were Jordskifteskolen på Stend and the Gjøvik Engineering School. To day these schools are a part of the new organisation of colleges in Norway, the Bergen College and the Gjøvik College.
Two schools at the secondary level, the Rud Secondary School and the Gauldal Secondary School, offer programmes in land surveying.
The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of the University of Agriculture. The Ministry has the right, according to law, to approve the educational programme which should give the qualification to serve as a land consolidation judge.
Institute of Technology, the University of Trondheim, answers to the Ministry of the church, education and research.
The Ministry of Environment is in charge of the Norwegian Mapping Authority, which has the responsibility for basic geodetic network and maps in the small scale, including the large scale mapping for economic mapping, scale 1:5- or 10.000. The regional work of the Mapping Authority, is taken care of by local county offices, as the Oslo and Akers-hus County Mapping Office.
The local authorities, the communes, have the responsibility for the large
scale mapping for planning and construction works, 1:500 to 1:5.000. The
communes also have the responsibility for the so called GAB-systems, Ground
Properties, Addresses and Building Registers. The Communes have also the
responsibility for sub-division of the land.
15.4 Education
(Fig. A15, B15.1, B15.2)
The detailed topology of the Norwegian education system for geodetic surveyors is shown in diagram A15. Three types of institution are involved: University, tertiary College, secondary School.
15.4.1 University level
Norway has two universities offering educational programmes in geodesy and
surveying.
The Agricultural University (NLH) - Norges landbrukshøgskole: Aas
There are two different courses each with a study period of five years, the first of which located at the Bergen College (see below):
The educational programme of the first year at the Bergen College is a special one in surveying, and different from the 1st. year educational programme in land use planning.
The University of Trondheim, Institute of Technology (UNIT-NTH)
Universitetet i Trondheim, Norges Tekniske Høgskole.
This course in the Department of Surveying and Mapping results in the award of a degree of Civil Engineer after four and a half years studies at the NTH Campus in the city of Trondheim.
15.4.2 College level
Norway has 26 regional located colleges offering 2 or 3 year educational
programmes at an intermediate level in engineering, surveying, land use
planning etc. Two of these colleges, the Bergen College and the Gjøvik
College, offer educational programmes in surveying and land use planning.
The Bergen College (HIB) - Høgskolen i Bergen, HIB
The qualification of Høgskolekandidat, jordskifte is awarded after two year studies at the Bergen College in the city of Bergen. At the Bergen College above the 1st year of the NLH educational programme for surveyors and land use planners is located. Graduates from the two years study of jordskifte at HIB, may continue their studies at NLH in the 2nd. or the 3rd. year at the five years surveying or land use planning programme at Aas.
The Gjøvik College (HIG) - Høgskolen i Gjøvik, HIG
The qualification of Høgskoleingeniør, landmåling is awarded after three year studies at the Gjøvik College in the city of Gjøvik. Graduates from the three years study of surveying at HIG, may apply to the NLH or the NTH, to continue their studies in the 3rd, or exceptionally in the 4th, year of study at NLH or NTH.
15.4.3 Secondary school level
Two secondary schools in Norway, the Rud Secondary School, Akershus County, and
the Gauldal Secondary School, Sør-Trøndelag County, offer
options in surveying.
15.4.4 Educational tasks
Quality assessment of exams is taken care of by an evaluation of two persons,
the teacher in question and another academics from another university or a
professional person, given the function as a "censor". The censor has to be
approved by the Study Committee at the study option.
Student funding is taken care of by a Governmental Loan Institution, giving loans for studies. All schools in the surveying profession are governmental schools. There is no fee for tuition, except to the Student Union, but the students have to pay for the books, housing and the living costs.
Professors and associate professors at universities and teachers at colleges, are appointed by the university or college board, on the bases of a report of evaluation of the qualifications given by a commission of three qualified persons, appointed by the board of the university or the college. The assessment by the evaluating commission should be build on broad presentation of the applicants publications, research works, teaching experience and methods, professional experience, international education and experience.
The universities and colleges are in recent years given better possibilities to buy the needed equipment for education in surveying and land use planning, i.e. instrumentation and EDP equipment. Some of the most expensive equipment are rented from companies, private surveying companies or from governmental mapping and planning authorities.
The Study Committee considers the actual curriculum continually, and takes initial steps to renew education programmes. The universities have opened up to enable students to build their own individual study plan, within the limits of free choice of credits. To graduate as a surveyor or a land use planner, there is a basic numbers of compulsory credits to be taken. The Study Committee consists of two teachers and one student. Decisions can not be taken without the presence of the student.
All schools are discussing or working on plans for the future. At all universities and colleges the organisational framework is under reconsideration. The trend is to larger units with institutes and departments being amalgamated. For example in few years the number of departments at NLH is reduced from 34 to 12. Also the NTH will enlarge the total study duration from 4 1/2 to 5 years. A committee is working on a plan to reduce the number of lectures, to the benefit of more time for self studying and project works, individually and in groups of students. Presentations of group results, role playing projects and critical evaluation of projects by students and academics or professionals, may be more used educational methods in the future.
15.4.5 Research
Funding for research projects is given by the Norwegian Research Council,
governmental bodies, as Ministries, research institutions and other
professional bodies as the Union of Local Authorities.
Funding for doctoral work / studies may be given by the Norwegian Research
Council or other governmental institutions, university positions as research
fellows or positions at research institutions as project fellows.
15.5 Professional activity
(Diagram C15)
The diagram C15 gives an overview of the type of work the graduates in (i) surveying both from NLH and from NTH, and in (ii) land use planning from NLH, are dealing with within their professional work. Thus we have an idea of the total scope of the work of the geodetic surveyor in Norway.
Most of graduates in surveying and land use planning from universities, gain their professional practical experience in governmental, regional and local authorities. Approximately 75 and 20-25 per cent have their professional practice in private consulting companies or firms dealing with surveying and land use planning in a broad sense. For some positions there are legal restrictions to practice in Norway.
15.5.1 Private companies / firms
There are some 20 private companies / firms in Norway, dealing with surveying,
digital mapping and land use planning. Most of them are small, with 1-5
persons. Some of the companies are large, with 11-50 persons and 3-4 of the
companies are larger, with more than 100 persons.
Surveying activities of these companies includes work for municipalities, road and railway authorities, telecommunications, air navigation, water and airport authorities and so on.
Much effort is also involved in computer related activities such as digital mapping, gas transmission lines, rapid transit systems, offshore dimension control, the production of electronic charts, and the vectorisation of scanned analogue maps.
Most work of the private companies has been for Norwegian users, as local authorities, companies and the industry. In the recent years some of the largest private companies, some owning aircraft, have extensive contract work abroad, e.g. Blom A/S and Fjellanger Widerøe A/S.
The private sector of private consulting and surveying companies employs about 400 qualified surveyors and land use planners.
15.5.2 State organisations
Jordskifteverket
Jordskifteverket is the Land Consolidation Service of Norway under the Ministry of Agriculture. In each of the nineteen counties from 1 to 5 Land Consolidation Offices are located. To be employed as an official officer requires graduation from NLH, Study Option Jordskifte - Land Consolidation, or graduation from the Bergen College, Section Jordskifte - Land Consolidation. Some 300 qualified person are engaged in this work.
Statens kartverk
Statens kartverk is the Norwegian Mapping Authority. In each county is a County Mapping Office, acting as regional offices to the head office at Hønefoss. This organisation employs: 500 persons at all educational levels.
Fylkeskommuner og kommuner
These are the regional and local authorities or fylkeskommuner og kommuner. All together there are 19 regional authorities and 435 local authorities in the country. Surveyors and land use planners are working in most of the regional and local authorities which employ about 400.
15.5.3 Quality control of practice
The ISO-9000 certificate is on the way to companies and firms also in the
surveying profession.
Continuous Professional Development - CPD
CPD has been introduced in the professional institutions, which arrange
in co-operation with universities so-called EEU-courses, exam directed
re-educational courses. Each person decides when and what course they will
choose. The idea is being mooted that a "sell-by" date should be put on the
graduation certificate which is valid for three years. Every 3rd. year each
person has the responsibility to update his or her graduation paper!
15.6 Acknowledgements
The author of this report is much indebted to the following persons who
assisted in several ways during and after the visit to Norway in January 1995:
Professor Inge Revhaug, Arild Helgesen, Reidar Wirum Bye and colleagues, Sigurd
Huseby, Bjørn Harsson, Roger Gustavson, and last but not least,
Associate Professor Gunnar Balle and Mrs Erzsébet Balle who carried out
all the detailed fact finding and graphic analysis respectively. The final form
is due to the author.
(1) Balle, G.: NLH - Agricultural University of Norway - Land Use Planning. KART OG PLAN, 54. 222-225,1994.
(2) Balle, G.: New Challenges in Educational Programme for Surveyors and Planners. Paper TS 206.2, Commission 2, Professional Education and Literature, XX FIG Congress, Melbourne 1994.
(3) Håvardstun, A.M.: HIB - Bergen College - 1 Study Year NLH. KART OG PLAN,54,228-229, 1994.
(4) Norberg, D.: GIH - Gjøvik College - Surveying - GIS. KART OG PLAN,54,233-236, 1994.
(5) Revhaug, I.: NLH - Agricultural University of Norway - Mapping Technology. KART OG PLAN,54,226-227,1994.
(6) Skogseth, T.: UNIT-NTH - University of Trondheim, Norwegian Institute of Technology - Surveying and Mapping. KART OG PLAN, 54,230-233, 1994.
(7) Studiehåndbok. Karttekniske fag 1994-95. NLH - Institutt for landmåling, Norges landbrukshøgskole.
(8) Studiehåndbok. Studieretning PLANFAG 1994-95. Institutt for
landskaps
planlegging,Seksjon planfag og rettslære, utgitt 22.08.94,
P.O.Box 5029, N-1432 Aas, 1994.
(9) Studier og opptak 1995 - Norges landbrukshøgskole - Det grønne universitet, P.O.Box 5003, N-1432 Aas.1995, 32 s.
(10) Tveit, L.E.: HIB-Bergen College -Land Consolidation-Surveying. KART OG PLAN, 54.,237-238, 1994.
(11) Undervisningsplan for 1.-5.studieår 1994-95. NLH-Norges landbrukshøgskole,P.O.Box 5003, N-1432 Aas.1994, 360 sider.
(12) Fjellanger Widerøe: Publicity and Technical Brochures 1995
(13) Land Use Control and Property Registration in Nordic Countries- Erik Stukjaer (Editor) Report in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and synoptically in English. AUC: Aalborg University Press 1981.
(14) Ordbok for Kart og Oppmäling; Bjørn Geirr Harsson (Project leader). A multilingual dictionary of technical terms in Mapping and Surveying: Norwegian, Danish, German, English, French and Swedish. Published by Statens kartverk 1989. ISBN 82-90408-97-8.
NLH - Norges landbrukshøgskole Department of Land Use and Landscape Planning Institutt for landskapsplanlegging - P.O.Box 5029 N-1432 Aas Department of Surveying - Institutt for landmåling - P.O.Box 5034 N-1432 Aas. UNIT-NTH Universitetet i Trondheim Norges Tekniske Høgskole Department of Surveying and Mapping UNIT-NTH N-7034 Trondheim The Bergen College (HIB) - Høgskolen i Bergen, HIB Lars Hillesgt.34 N-5008 Bergen The Gjøvik College (HIG) - Høgskolen i Gjøvik, HIG P.O.Box 191 N-2801 Gjøvik Rud Secondary School Hauger Skolevei 8/10, N-1351 Rud, Akershus County Gauldal Secondary School N-7090 Støren, Sør-Trøndelag County NJKF/NIF P.O.Box 325 N-6801 Førde NKTF Norges Karttekniske Forbund - Storgt. 11 N-3500 Hønefoss Statens kartverk - Norwegian Mapping Authority, N-3500 Hønefoss Fjellanger Widerøe: AS Rolfstangveien 12 Postboks 190 N-1330 Oslo Lufthavn Kart og Plan Editor Parkveien 7 N-1430 Aas
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