History professor Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel (Sp) was today appointed as the new minister for research and higher education. TV 2 was the first to announce that it would happen earlier today. It happened in an extraordinary Cabinet meeting today at 10.00.
He has been state secretary for both Ola Borten Moe and Sandra Borch. Now he takes a step up and becomes minister for research and higher education himself.
CONGRATULATORS: The Norwegian Research Association’s leader Guro Elisabeth Lind was among the congratulators when Oddmund Hoel Løkensgard came out of the Palace as the new Minister of Research and Higher Education. (Photo: Ola Gamst Sæther)
At 11.00 he has press conference together with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
There, Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel received a very good speech from the Prime Minister.
– He is a knowledgeable and generous person. He is even well liked by those he is supposed to rule. It’s nice, but it has to be respected because there will probably be some tough decisions too, emphasized Jonas Gahr Støre. He pointed out that he would formally take over the minister’s office at 12.00 today, and he wished him a welcome to the government college.
– It will be nice to bring in a professor of history. It can also have a lot to say for other professional fields. I am looking forward to this collaboration, said Gahr Støre.
Løkensgard Hoel has a seat on the municipal council for the Center Party in Luster municipality. From 1999 to 2002, he was the leader of Norges Mållag. He majored in Nordic language and literature from the University of Oslo. In 2009, he submitted his doctoral thesis in history at NTNU. He was appointed professor of history at the University of Western Norway. Since he was appointed as state secretary in the Ministry of Education in autumn 2021, he has not been allowed to practice as a history professor.
NRK have examined several master’s theses written by ministers in recent days, but they have found no signs of plagiarism in the doctoral dissertation of Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel, who has become the new minister of research and higher education.
(Updated at 11:00, 11:32 and 12:02)