Curt Rice ’84 was appointed the new president of Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA). Rice is the first non-Norwegian head of a Norwegian institution for higher education.
The University College is Norway’s largest, and is unique owing to its wide range of professional programs and close ties between research and corresponding fields of practice.
Rice, a philosophy major at Augsburg, and wife Tove I. Dahl ’84 jointly received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.
“I look forward to meeting the faculty, staff and students and working closely with them and our other partners to write HiOA’s next chapter,” says Curt Rice.
Rice comes to the University College from a position as professor at the Department of Languages and Linguistics at the university in Tromsø. He earned his PhD in general linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Rice will assume his new position on August 1st.
“The university college plays an important role in providing skilled professionals in many sectors, such as education, health and technology. We will grow the best possible academic teams working together with our outstanding administration to pave the way for excellence in our teaching programs and research activities,” says Rice.
“I’ll work to assure that our institution makes its mark both nationally and internationally. And together we will achieve our goal of becoming a university.”
HiOA’s new rector leads Norway’s Committee on Gender Balance and Diversity in Research and is also the Head of the Board of CRIStin (Current Research Information System in Norway). His leadership experience comes chiefly from his time as founding director of the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics (CASTL), a Norwegian Centre of Excellence, and from his time as the Pro Rector for Research & Development at the University of Tromsø. Today he is also a member of the Board at the University of Tromsø.