Postgraduate Postgraduate is also a concept that doesn't quite fit our system. A Norwegian university degree is divided in two levels. After having passed the cand.mag . degree, the student may proceed to the higher level, which is focused on a dissertation of some 100-150 pages, preferably of original research, but more restricted in scope and time than a doctoral dissertation. This is the 'Hovudfag' thesis listed in separate sections elsewhere in this booklet. After passing cand.
Most students take the newer degree, to which the fellowships are linked.
Postgraduate teaching is only intermittent, and normally not on specific research areas such as the Middle East, but there may be dissertation seminars where works in progress are discussed, either for Hovudfag alone, or jointly with Doctoral students, or other specific, one-time courses organized for the research students. In 2000, Norwegian universities started to move towards a reform of the national teaching structures, away from the totalising subject entities towards independent courses smaller than the current 10-unit minimum entity. This was meant i.a. to allow greater flexibility for specialised and research-oriented teaching even at the lower levels. In Bergen, the Middle East is one of those regions which will benefit from such greater flexibility. A plan was therefore approved by the Faculty of Arts for setting up a 'BA in Middle Eastern studies', based on a combination of new and old teaching offers.