Board of trustees report

High quality in education and research

The board is pleased that BI is again ranked among the leading educational institutions in Europe, and for the sixth year in a row as Norway's best business school by the Financial Times.

Since 2018, BI has also completed successful re-accreditation processes in all its national and international accreditations (NOKUT, AMBA, AACSB, EQUIS and EOOCS), most recently with EQUIS. The latter was conducted digitally in November 2020 and awarded in February 2021. The board acknowledges the hard and targeted work done over time to achieve such excellent results. BI's accreditations and rankings have a major impact on the reputation of the school, the value of a diploma from BI, and not least the recruitment of international employees and students.

In June, on the basis of the government's amendment to the Degree Regulations, the board decided that BI should continue to develop a three-year bachelor's degree and a two-year master's degree in law, with the aim of having these accredited and approved by NOKUT. These studies, where the master's degree will be Norway's first in business law and economics, are in demand by the industry. The board is confident that candidates who are able to combine economic and legal expertise will be very attractive candidates in the labour market in years to come.

The board is impressed by BI's researchers and the positive development in terms of scientific publications, especially publications in top-ranked scientific journals, so-called ABS4* and ABS4 journals. These are among the highest ranked and most reputable journals in their fields. The Board of Trustees is pleased with an increase in the share of externally funded research projects, with a total turnover value of 35.3 million kroner in 2021 compared with almost 30 million in 2020. The board expects a steady increase in years to come here, following increased focus and strengthened administrative support for research in this area in recent years.

A long-term strategic commitment to recruiting international professionals also yields results. In 2021, almost 39% of BI's academic staff had an international background, compared with 35% the year before.

The board is satisfied that BI drew 114.2 million kroner in sponsored and commission-based projects (BOA). Such funds are particularly important within the Executive market, and we expect a steady development in revenues going forward.

Welfare, value-creation and reorganisation

Throughout the pandemic, the board and BI's management have prioritised efforts to implement measures to strengthen social and professional integration for school students. The board is excited about the successful launch of a national mentoring scheme for new BI students at all campuses. Since autumn 2021, around 5000 first-year students have been offered to join groups led by over 200 student mentors. The feedback from the students, who were allowed to participate in both social and academic activities throughout the year, has been very good. 

In 2021, BI strengthened student health services by providing free psychologist services at Campus Oslo. BI also assisted first-year students who wanted to form their own digital study groups since many found it difficult to have physical meeting points where they could get to know each other. BI also started a collaboration with the student association (BISO) and the Kavli Trust to arrange various activities that promote better social integration. The Minister of Research and Higher Education at the time, Henrik Asheim, was among the participants at one of the events of the so-called Social With BISO project.

In recent years, surveys have repeatedly shown that the employment rate among BI candidates is high, especially at master's level. In 2021, 87% of bachelor's candidates and 96% of master's candidates found employment within six months of completing their degree. The board had feared a decline here due to the pandemic, but we are very pleased to note that both figures have actually gone up since 2020.

Other important priorities in 2021

Efforts to reduce dropout rates, ensure study progression and lift completion rates among BI students have been high priorities for the board and BI administration over time. The board is satisfied that the completion rate in prescribed times increased for BI's bachelor's students, from 45% in 2020 to 49.5% in 2021. The same figure for masters is 82%, somewhat lower than the record year 2020 when the completion rate was 87%. The completion rate for PhD after six years was 46% in 2021, which is a decrease from the previous year. Here it is important to note that the data on which these figures is based is very limited, and that small changes have a major impact.  

The transition from the DigiEx digital examination tool to WISEflow has been a high priority in 2021. This past year, 96% of BI's 970 examinations were conducted digitally because of the pandemic. In the autumn of 2021, around two thirds of the exams were transferred to WISEflow. Since the spring of 2022, WISEflow will be BI's only exam tool. The board is pleased with the development and progress of the project.

As mentioned, BI has further developed its focus on digital teaching in 2021. In February, the school implemented its new streaming platform (Panopto) on all campuses to better facilitate the storage and sharing of lectures. Higher expectations of so-called hybrid forms of delivery, i.e. how physical and digital teaching methods are combined in the study programme, also increase the degree of complexity. In 2021, BI has retained and further developed the digital tools already used in teaching, as well as strengthening the capacity for so-called Zoom Classrooms, which to a greater extent facilitates interaction between students and lecturers.

Gender equality, discrimination and accessibility

BI's plan for diversity and equality states that all employees will have the same rights, duties and opportunities regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, national origin, functional ability, beliefs or sexual orientation. BI strives for a gender distribution of 60-40, and systematic wage differences must be equalised. BI's gender equality work is regularly reported to the board and is an area that the board watches closely.

In 2021, the Gender Policy for Faculty was drawn up to clarify ambitions related to gender equality and diversity in academic staff. A challenge related to recruitment and advancement of female academic staff had been identified. The aim is to promote a culture of fair and inclusive working environment, actively ensure gender balance in top positions, work to prevent direct and indirect discrimination and engage in active recruitment where gender distribution or gender imbalance would fall below our targets for this area.

Following the national survey on bullying and harassment in the higher education sector in 2019, BI chose to focus specifically on the prevention of sexual harassment. In 2021, a separate policy was drawn up for this, as well as guidelines for handling cases on harassment and sexual harassment, as well as an implementation plan for raising awareness and training of managers and employees.

BI conducts annual gender balance and wage distribution surveys for various positions. This, as well as the work on gender equality and diversity, are reported in line with our reporting obligation pursuant to Norway's Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act.

At the end of 2021, BI had 34 female professors, of whom 29 were in full permanent positions representing an increase of 5 persons during 2021.

The proportion of women among professors has risen to 28.5%. The proportion of women in total academic positions is stable at around 34%, with wide variations across job categories and departments. The share of men in administrative positions was 33 %. The share of men in administrative management positions at a director level increased from 22% to 28%.

Both in terms of fixed salary and total salary on the administrative side, there does not appear to be any systematic bias between women and men in the position categories 2-6. Women's wages as a percentage of men's wages are between 93-119% for fixed pay and between 94-97% for total pay. The largest difference can be found in position categories 2 and 5.

On the academic side, women's fixed pay as a percentage of men's was within the interval 97% - 103% for most position categories, with the exception of professors where women had an average of 89% of the salary of their male counterparts. The difference can be partly attributed to the fact that there are several men who have been professors for a long time. In addition, there are still very few female professors in the traditionally male-dominated disciplines where the wage level is generally higher. This is further reinforced when variable pay is taken into account.

On BI's board of trustees, the share of women is 50%. BI Senate's share of women is 50%. Women amounted to 40 % of executive management, 33 % of department heads and 25% of deans.

In 2021, 55 nationalities were represented among BI's employees. In 2020, the board adopted a new language policy that states that English is the main language for internal information and when the organisation is assembled. At the end of 2021, just over 20% of BI's employees were not Norwegian citizens. The share of international employees was 6% for administrative staff and almost 39% for everyone in academic positions. The board notes a stable increase in the number of international employees in academic positions.

The average age of retirement is 68.2 years for all employees at BI. Seniors in academic positions work on average until the age of 69. Administrative seniors work on average to the age of 67.7.

BI's campuses have been developed in accordance with the laws and guidelines that were in force when they were built. An overview of where the building complex deviates from current building codes has been prepared. Continuous efforts are being made to rectify deficiencies in reconstructions and adaptations of the building complex.

Risk management and internal control

BI has in recent years focused on strengthening and professionalising risk management work and our internal control system, including putting in place a systematic approach that helps to identify, manage and follow up any incidents that may adversely affect achieving our goals. This resulted in the creation of the Governance, Risk & Compliance function (GRC) in 2020 that reports its work to the board. GRC also encompasses the work of the Data Protection Officer and the Student Ombudsman, and ensures that these roles are sufficiently independent of management in general.

In 2021, the board decided to establish an internal audit function. This function should be outsourced to a auditing or consulting company to ensure sufficient independence and breadth of competence.

Public safety and emergency preparedness

A major part of EHS work at BI is ensuring the health and safety of human beings. Measures are implemented on the basis of annual risk analyses. BI is actively working to prevent serious incidents and plan for rapid response and good management that limits adverse effects. BI has drawn up a steering document for public safety and emergency preparedness work for the higher education sector, as well as letters of allocation, as a basis for its own work.

The pandemic has been a high priority in BI's safety and emergency preparedness work throughout 2021. Infection control measures for students and staff have been implemented, evaluated and followed up. Risk assessments such as decision support have been carried out regularly in advance of important changes. BI has endeavoured to ensure that measures are proportionate and in line with current recommendations from the authorities. With the exception of an increase in the number of infected students just after the start of the autumn semester, BI had low infection rates throughout 2021. Pandemic management led to closer cooperation on safety and emergency preparedness with other campuses. BI is planning a new evaluation of pandemic management, where emergency preparedness and infection control are also included.

BI conducted digital crisis drills in the fall of 2021, with ransomware as its topic. Revising frameworks for emergency preparedness and lack of tools for managing digital incidents were highlighted as important learning points. Based on this exercise and general pandemic management, among other things, BI changed its emergency management organisation and crisis management. 

Threats did occur against employees and students in 2021. Hate speech was also documented against one BI student on one occasion. Otherwise, no other extensive incidents related to safety and emergency preparedness have been reported in 2021.