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How much do academics in Norway earn? 

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
How much do academics in Norway earn? 
This is how much academics in Norway typically earn. Pictured is a lecture hall. Photo by Miguel Henriques on Unsplash

Norway is an attractive country for academics from abroad. So how much do those working in academia in Norway make on average? 

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Many universities of courses in Norway are offered in English and around a fifth of PhD students in Norway are foreign nationals, according to the European University Institute

Many factors make Norway an attractive workplace, such as the high salary and the excellent work-life balance for most industries. But what about academia? How much can academics in Norway expect to earn? 

Figures from Statistics Norway show that university and college lecturers made between 53,910 and 57,360 kroner per month before taxes. Men earned 57,000 kroner, with women earning less. Meanwhile, the median wage was 55,350 kroner for men per month and 52,180 kroner for women. 

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This is only slightly higher than the average wage in Norway, which is 56,250 kroner per month for men and 49,280 kroner for women. In addition to a gender wage gap, women tend to have a lower average wage as a larger proportion of men work in the private sector, where wages are higher. 

However, when using the academic sector as a whole, figures from Statistics Norway show that the average monthly wage amounts to 67,090 kroner for men and 55,180 kroner each month for women. 

Academia itself is a broad sector with many different roles available. Typically the academic hierarchy in Norway follows the path of PhD candidate, postdoc/ research fellow, lecturer, associate professor/ senior lecturer and professor. 

A research fellow in Norway makes around 491,200 kroner a year, according to a trade journal published by the Norwegian Association of Researchers. Meanwhile, a postdoctoral fellow made 589,676 kroner annually in Norway in 2021. 

Researchers in Norway take home an annual pay package of 659,546 kroner, according to the journal, while assistant professors made marginally more at 688,137 kroner per year in the state sector. Those in the private sector made a bit more. However, there are far more open positions in the public sector than in the private one. Assistant professors could expect around 695,770 kroner. 

Employees at the associate professor and senior researcher (R3 – established researcher), which also covers senior lecturers, earned between 694,343 and 723,586 kroner a year. Researcher professors, professors and docents command a salary of between 821,447 and 897,936 kroner per year. 

Several factors affect how much professors earn. Those working at the BI School of Business and Economics had the highest average salary among those in the academic sector when it came to professors. Professors there made an average of 978,000 kroner per year.

Meanwhile, according to a report by a news site for the academic sector, Khrono, there are around 1,800 people working at universities in Norway with a salary of more than one million kroner per year. The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) was the university in Norway with the most staff in the top 30 highest earners. 

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