Learning Environment Committee (LMU)

The learning environment is more than teaching. The committee works on five aspects of it:

• The physical environment — buildings and surroundings, and universal design
• The psychosocial environment — wellbeing and how people work together
• The organizational environment — the systems for feedback and participation
• The pedagogical environment — the form, content and framework of teaching
• The digital environment — where learning processes, teaching and technology meet

It also covers everything that affects student safety, and the physical, psychological, social and welfare conditions that lie within the university's control.

The committee works to ensure that each student's situation is arranged in the best possible way, and has particular responsibility for students with disabilities and for universal design at UiB.

The committee is kept informed of complaints the university receives from students about the learning environment, and may submit statements on these matters to the University Board. It is also informed of any orders or decisions from the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority that concern the learning environment.

The committee is a consultative body in matters concerning the overall learning environment, and must be informed early in ongoing processes. Divisions and faculties are required to actively seek the committee's views.

Meetings rotate among the faculties, so that the committee can maintain a dialogue with each faculty and follow up local work on the learning environment. UiB's Action Plan for a Comprehensive Learning Environment 2023–2029 forms the basis for these visits.

The committee maintains an ongoing dialogue with the Education Committee. Where responsibility for an individual matter is unclear, the two committees decide together.

The committee is advisory, but not without room to act. It reports annually to the University Board, and the report may include an action plan setting out the committee's proposed measures. Within the authority and resources the University Board delegates to it, the committee may implement those measures itself.

The committee may also take the initiative to gather data on the learning environment.

You can raise a matter yourself. Individual students, staff members, the university's own units and the Bergen Student Welfare Organization (Sammen) may all ask for a matter concerning the learning environment to be considered by the committee.

If you are a student, you can go through one of the seven student representatives, through the Student Parliament, or contact the secretariat in the Division of Student and Academic Affairs directly.

If you complain about the learning environment to your own department, the department is required to pass the complaint on to the faculty. Each semester, faculties send the committee a brief report on such complaints. Your complaint therefore becomes known to the committee even if you do not contact it yourself.

If you need help with a matter that concerns you personally, the Student Ombud is the right place to go. The committee works on systematic conditions, not on individual cases.

The law requires students and the institution to have an equal number of representatives. The committee therefore has seven students and seven staff members. The chair alternates between the students and the institution. The committee is appointed for four years, and the students for one academic year.

Staff, 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2029

• Pro-Rector for Education Sigrunn Eliassen, chair 2025/2026
• Director Christen Soleim, Division of Student and Academic Affairs. Deputy: Assistant Director Torunn Valen
• Director Kjartan Nesset, Estate and Facilities Management Division. Deputy: Senior Engineer Rune Hovland
• Director Tore Burheim, IT Division. Deputy: Assistant Director Cecilie Ohm
• Director Anne Line Grepne, Communication Division. Deputy: Head of Section Jørgen Thune Johnsen
• Dean Stine Lehmann. Deputy: Dean Synnøve Bendixsen
• Adviser Elisabeth Aronsen Straume, with particular responsibility for students with disabilities. Deputy: Solveig Pechorina

Students, 2025/2026 academic year

Arvid Fauskanger Ekberg (deputy chair), Christoffer Janson, Jonas Joel Joseph, Heine Såkvitne, Isabelle Abigail Ingebritsen, Nora Aukland Sandtorv and Anna Leikesett.

Deputies: Fillip Rønning Jakobsen, Vilde Bugge Larsen, Anna Runa K. Risa Bakke and Salih Hamada.

Permanent observers

• Head of Section Ingvill Skjold Thorkildsen, Bergen Student Welfare Organization (Sammen Karriere)
• Senior Adviser Runa Jakhelln, Division of Human Resources
• Library Director Maria-Carme Torras Calvo, University of Bergen Library
• Student Ombuds Karsten Olav Aarestrup and Hanne Martinusen