Traditionally,
economics was only taught at Norwegian universities, mainly at the
University of Oslo, where it was first conceived, in the 19th-century as a sub-discipline of law. Business administration was not regarded as an academic discipline, and no formal education program was available. NHH was founded to provide the first formal training in business studies with a two-year
vocational degree, called
handelskandidat ("candidate of commerce"). In 1963 the
handelskandidat degree was renamed
siviløkonom and it later evolved into a four-year degree. The school today offers degrees at the master's and doctoral levels.
1900–1936: Establishing a business school in Norway At the end of the 19th-century, Oslo and Bergen business communities began discussing the need for a Norwegian business school. A number of schools had been opened across Europe, and during the early 20th-century several business schools were established in
Scandinavia based on the German
handelshochschule (business school) model. Among them was the
Stockholm School of Economics which was founded in 1909. In 1917, Norway's parliament, the
Storting, passed a resolution to establish a Norwegian business school.
1936–1963: NHH opens and sets to work After much lobbying and hard work, especially by
Kristoffer Lehmkuhl, NHH was finally opened by
King Haakon VII on Monday 7 September 1936, ten years before the
University of Bergen was established. The strong involvement of the business community in Bergen had ensured not only that the school was established, but that it was based in Bergen. It closely linked to business community from the outset. When NHH first opened, there were less than ten academic staff with 60 students enrolling each year. The first degree course offered was the
Handelsdiplom (business diploma) and graduates received the title
Handelskandidat (business graduate). This was initially a two-year course and, starting in 1938, a one-year additional course was offered to candidates who wanted to become teachers. In 1946 the
Handelsdiplom course was extended to three years. After the
World War II, American influence became more important and also started to influence NHH to a greater extent. Graduates and staff began to go to the US to continue their studies and work for a period, a trend that greatly increased in the 1960s and 1970s. By the early 1950s the need for a doctoral programme at NHH had grown. In 1956, NHH received permission from the Norwegian government to award doctorates and in 1957 the first doctoral candidate graduated from NHH.
1963–1980: A new campus and rapid growth By the late 1950s NHH had outgrown its original premises and work began on developing a new campus for the school at
Sandviken, just outside Bergen city centre. In 1963, the school moved to its new campus, an event which in many ways marked the transition to a new period characterised by a rapid increase in the number of students as well as teachers. The new campus provided a large increase in capacity and the annual intake of students increased from 60 to over 200. An important feature of this period was the growth and development of the faculty. The new facilities made it possible to employ many new, talented people and the importance of research as well as teaching was strengthened. Many successful graduates went to the US to study for doctorates and came back to NHH with international experience and a more research based focus. Many faculty members took advantage of sabbaticals to study and continue their research overseas, many textbooks were published and the volume of publications in international journals increased significantly. A driving force behind this expansion and internationalisation of research was Professor
Karl Borch. During this time Professor
Jan Mossin's seminal paper "Equilibrium in a Capital Asset Market" was published in
Econometrica, contributing significantly to the development of the
capital asset pricing model (CAPM). About the same time as Mossin returned to NHH from
Carnegie Mellon with his doctorate, future
Nobel laureate Finn E. Kydland went to the same university for his doctoral studies. Most of the US educated doctoral graduates came back to NHH to teach and continue their research, but some stayed in the US and a few (like Kydland) returned to NHH only to later go back to the US to continue their work. As the faculty grew and developed so did the academic offerings, with several advanced level courses established. In 1963 the name of the Handelsdiplom degree was changed to
siviløkonom, with graduate receiving the same title. A master level programme,
høyere avdelingstudium (HAS), was introduced in 1972 as a preparation for
siviløkonom students wishing to continue on to doctoral studies; and in 1973 Professor
Dag Coward established a master level programme for students wishing to specialise in auditing, accounting and the financial management of firms, the
høyere revisorstudium (HRS). In 1975 the
siviløkonom degree course was extended to a four-year programme.
1980–2000: Specialisation and international expansion In the early 1980s it was realised that the doctoral programme required updating and a new, structured
PhD programme was introduced involving taught courses in addition to the research and writing of a thesis. This new PhD programme continued the focus on research at NHH, rather than just teaching. The first candidate to graduate from the new PhD programme did so in 1985 and the annual number of graduates rose from 1 in 1985 to 12 in 1990. The focus on expansion and internationalisation of research was recognised in 1984 as NHH was ranked 7th globally and 3rd in Europe in the
American Economic Review amongst economics schools or departments in non-English speaking countries by publications in leading journals. During this period, close relations with international research environments were also established. The international activities at the school have increased considerably and the international focus has become stronger over the years. In 1984 NHH established their first international exchange agreement with the Stockholm School of Economics, and in 1986 NHH became the first institution in Norway to offer a master's degree programme taught entirely in English - the Master of International Business (MIB). Following this, greater emphasis has been placed on exchange arrangements for students, and the school joined the prestigious Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) and the
Erasmus programme in 1992 and the global Partnership in International Management (PIM) network in 1995. Student and staff numbers continued to rise throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By 1985 there were 1670 students and 198 members of staff in total.
2000–present: Continued growth and development into the 21st century was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2004 (with
Edward C. Prescott) for his contributions to dynamic
macroeconomics The
siviløkonom qualification was extended to 5 years in 2003. In line with the
Bologna declaration, it now comprises a 3-year
Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration combined with a 2-year
Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration. NHH alumnus and Adjunct Professor
Finn E. Kydland was awarded the
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2004, together with Professor
Edward C. Prescott of
Arizona State University. Kydland was giving a lecture at NHH when news of the award arrived. Prescott was a Visiting Professor of Economics at NHH in 1974-75. In 2007 NHH announced the launching of a new master programme taught fully in English, the MSc in Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment. Today, NHH is part of a global network of business schools and universities. International partner institutions include: •
Columbia University •
Cornell University •
University of California, Berkeley •
New York University •
Duke University •
HEC Paris •
Bocconi University •
London School of Economics •
Imperial College London On June 1, 2011, the school simplified and changed its English name from the
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration to the
Norwegian School of Economics.
List of rectors •
Ingvar Wedervang, 1936–1956 •
Eilif W. Paulson, 1956–1957 •
Rolf Waaler, 1957–1963 •
Dag Coward, 1964–1972 •
Olav Harald Jensen, 1973–1978 •
Gerhard Stoltz, 1979–1984 •
Arne Kinserdal, 1985–1990 •
Leif Methlie, 1990–1995 •
Carl Julius Norstrøm, 1995–1998 •
Victor Norman, 1999–2001 •
Per Ivar Gjærum, 2001–2005 •
Jan I. Haaland, 2005–2013 •
Frøystein Gjesdal, 2013–2017 •
Øystein Thøgersen, 2017– ==Organization==