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Professor Dr. Anders Malthe-Sørenssen - Professor of physics and Professor Dr. Ella Idsøe - Professor in pedagogical psychology, University Oslo, Norway

The University of Oslo established a cross-disciplinary honors-program starting fall 2019 and providing the first honors-program in Norway. The program is directed towards ambitious students who want to obtain a cross-disciplinary perspective in addition to an individually adapted disciplinary bachelor degree. The program initially only recruited students in mathematics, physics, linguistics and philosophy. At its inception in 2019, the program became the most competitive study program in Norway, sparking a broad national debate about the legitimacy of study programs for talented students, the content of honors education in particular and the state of higher education in general. The development of a study program spanning both humanities and the natural sciences uncovered underlying differences in educational practices and cultures. We provide experiences from the development of the program and results from initial interview with students focusing on the interdisciplinary aspects of the program.

Anders Malthe-Sørenssen is a professor of physics, and director Center for Computing in Science Education, a Center for Excellence in Education. He has extensive experience from building up and leading international, high-impact cross-disciplinary research groups in physics, computational science, geoscience, and bioscience. He is a prize-winning educator, author of two best-selling textbooks in physics, and an experienced innovator and inventor. He is the leader of the Honors-program at the University of Oslo.

Experiences from establishing a cross-disciplinary Honors program at the University of Oslo

Ella Cosmovici Idsøe is Professor in Psychology at the National Center for Science Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo. She has expertise in the field of gifted and talented education. She has been publishing several books, book chapters and research articles about gifted and talented education and is involved at the moment in different research projects. She has been involved since 2017 in developing, implementing and doing research on the effects of STEM talent centers for school children in Norway.

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