University of Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway's oldest university, founded in 1811 as the Royal Frederick University and renamed in 1939. It occupies the Norwegian capital, with the main campus at Blindern and older faculties in the city center. It is a comprehensive public university rather than a technical institute, spanning theology, law, medicine, and the sciences.

Eight faculties cover theology, law, medicine, humanities, mathematics and natural sciences, dentistry, social sciences, and educational sciences. Graduate research is tied to Oslo University Hospital, the Natural History Museum, and centers in life science and energy. Medicine and the natural sciences run laboratories across Blindern and the hospital campuses.

About 28,000 students enroll, including a large graduate cohort and students from many countries, especially elsewhere in Europe. Academic staff number several thousand. Nobel laureates affiliated with the university include economists Ragnar Frisch and Trygve Haavelmo. Explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen is among its best-known alumni.

Master's programs follow a two-year structure, and the PhD is a research degree often held as a salaried university post. Teaching is organized in a two-semester year. Public fellowships and employment contracts are the normal doctoral funding route. Graduate life is urban: Blindern is a purpose-built campus on the metro, while law and some professional faculties remain closer to downtown Oslo.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Oslo lists 3 graduate programs across 3 subjects, all of them master's programs, with the widest choice in mathematics, physics and social work & sociology. University of Oslo holds rank 161 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.