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Launching Norway’s first master’s course in crowdfunding

The academic year 2018 will offer a unique possibility for master’s students at the School of Business and Law at UiA.

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Hender som legges oppå hverandre, foto.
Crowdfunding is both a model for financing and a way to receive feedback from future customers.

Starting this autumn, the School of Business and Law offers a course in crowdfunding for its master’s students. In addition to lectures and teaching, the students will be working with real campaigns from real companies.

“We started research of and education in crowdfunding in 2012, and we decided early on that we wanted to develop a great expertise in this area. Nowadays, we are at an international level, and we want to provide master’s students with better insight into the different sides of crowdfunding,” Rotem Shneor said, associate professor at the School of Business and Law and one of Norway’s leading experts on crowdfunding.

Difficult start

Crowdfunding is a type of financing which collects small amounts of money from many people. It is used to gather funding for new ideas and products, and also gives potential customers the possibility of providing feedback and wishes directly to the product developer. However, the start of the crowdfunding process is often difficult.

“We have seen that in the early stages of crowdfunding campaigns it is hard to receive funding. That is why we wish to give students experiences with this type of financing in real situations, as well as teaching them about theories and strategies,” Shneor said.

Cooperation with Innovation Norway

The course is named ORG-457 and is organised in cooperation with Innovation Norway. More than 20 companies and organisations have agreed to take part in the course, and the aim is to make the master’s course even larger next year.

Professor Rotem Shneor at the School of Business and Law at UiA.

Professor Rotem Shneor ved Handelshøyskolen ved UiA.

 

“This year, the master’s course is only open to master’s students at the School of Business and Law, but we wish to make it available to all master’s students at UiA. Engineers, musicians, freelancers and others can benefit greatly from having more knowledge about crowdfunding,” Shneor said.