Problems with master education in Norway.

Hi everyone,

For a couple of years ago I decided to apply for a master's degree which had english as language of the course. I got in and I had to take a TOEFL exam in order to prove my level of english. This is completely okay, since it was part of the admission requirements.

The problem is that despite having these language requirements I have found that they by default always used norwegian. We the international students would complain and they would switch to english. And then back to norwegian. Every time a new teacher walked into the classroom it was like this. We had to insist in speaking english every 45 min... Last year it even impacted one of my exams. It was a practical exam where we had 10 minutes to perform X tests in patients and the examiners started speaking norwegian. When I asked him kindly to speak english he had a brain fart and couldn't, took him a while, resulting in me not having enough time to perform this exam because "we ran out of time".

Now turns out that this semester I couldn't make it to campus the first few days we had classes because I was at home with my 10 days newborn baby amd recovering from a c-section. When I started going again I was surprised to see that suddenly the language of the clssses was suddenly norwegian. Even some of the handouts were in norwegian too. We complained about this and the teachers and norwegian students just kept speaking norwegian.

When I confronted the teachers about this and said that in the language requirements it was written that everything was supposed to be in english they said "well this subject is a little bit more complicated because we also talk some about the norwegian law so we decided to do it in norwegian so it is easier for the students"...I couldn't believe this. At the end, we all are gonna be graded the same way. And they make things easier for the local students while more difficult for the international ones. And I do not think this is okay.

Tomorrow we have a written exam, and the norwegians are allowed to do it in norwegian. I will be answering in english, but I still feel discriminated. To me, writing in english takes longer than in my mother tongue...so I feel they facilitate this for the norwegians and not for the rest. I would never complaint about this if the language of the master's degree was said to be norwegian, but it is not. And if I am required to speak english why is it not the same for the norwegians? If for example questions were asked and answered in norwegian, I could not catch the explanation, and maybe that explanation would have helped me to understand better this subject.

When I sent an email to the course coordinator and the student advisor the answers I got were that "all the students including me agreed to do this course in norwegian". But the truth is I never did.

So what to do now? They are not really being helpful about how can I make a formal complaint. I am just very angry and disappointed. I just want to ensure everyone has the same oportunities. Norwegian students knew this education was supposed to be in english before they signed for it. And I expect the norwegian professors teaching at a master's level do speak english...?

How to proceed with this? Is it a lost battle? Am I overeacting? I went from being excited about this education to feeling it is an agony i cannot wait to be done with, because I cannot help it but feel somewhat discriminated....

Sorry for such a long post.

EDIT : I understand better why they are allowed to do the exam in norwegian and that is okay. However, I am still annoyed about the course being in norwegian and about the teachers not being able to confirm that the questions that we will find in the exam are coming from lectures, handouts, workshops...that were given in english. For what I understand in the email from them anything that was spoken in norwegian in the classroom is exam material too despite the language of the course being english.