Portuguese as a university course in a Nordic country: the case of Norway

Abstract

Portuguese was adopted as a subject at the University of Oslo (Norway) more than 50 years ago as an important channel for culture, because of its place in Romance studies, as well as for practical reasons. In fact, the initiative came from the private sector, although the ground had been prepared by a Romance philologist for many years already. Over time, Portuguese became a subject just like any other. However, with the change of university ideology and the implementation of a new administrative model, academic ideals lost in importance and social and political considerations were neglected as well. Less resources were allocated to Portuguese, and an inevitable decline in the number of new students served as a justification for a drastic reduction of the subject, which, in turn, can only be seen as a lack of true interest in the Portuguese-speaking countries as far as the university’s leadership and the managers of the private sector are concerned, but even the present Norwegian government.