Norway's most popular degree programme

Today, the application figures for higher education were published by Samordna opptak.

By the application deadline of 15 April, 8,007 people had listed UiA as their first choice (up from 6,327 in 2025). This is a new record for UiA, and corresponds to 5.31 per cent of total applicants (up from 4.45 per cent in 2025).

"The overall application figures for UiA are really good, and we are already looking forward to welcoming new students to Agder in August", says Hilde Inntjore, Vice-Rector for Education at UiA.

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Psychology at UiA: straight to the top

UiA’s new professional degree programme in psychology has been established following a process spanning several years of academic development and accreditation procedures, supported by the Sørlandet Competence Fund, the Aust-Agder Development and Competence Fund, and Sparebanken Norge’s Sørfondet Endowment Fund.

The aim is to help increase the number of psychologists, particularly in Agder, Telemark and Vestfold.

UiA plans to admit 45 students each year, and it is now clear that there will be fierce competition to be part of the first cohort.

A total of 1,451 people have listed the programme at UiA as their first choice.

It has the highest number of psychology students in the country starting in autumn 2026 (see table below).

"These are absolutely fantastic figures, and far beyond our expectations. The high number of applicants is a real source of inspiration for us as we prepare to welcome Agder’s first psychology students onto the professional degree programme this autumn", says Inntjore.

Of all the degree programmes available through the Coordinated Admissions System, UiA’s psychology programme is Norway’s fourth most popular. Only law programmes in Oslo and Bergen and the business administration programme at the Norwegian School of Economics have more first-choice applicants.

Around 40 per cent of applicants, 620 people, come from Agder (460), Telemark (65) and Vestfold (95).

"It’s great to see that so many people from these counties have applied. It reinforces our belief that the programme will help improve the supply of psychologists here in the south", says Inntjore.

Nationwide, the number of applicants for psychology has almost doubled, from 3,417 to 6,037 first-choice applicants.

“One possible explanation for the increased interest nationwide is that it is now possible to study psychology outside the major cities,” says Inntjore.

Responsible digitalisation captures the spirit of the times

UiA is also offering a fully digital one-year programme in responsible digitalisation for the first time in 2026. The programme explores how digital solutions can be developed and implemented in a safe and sustainable manner, which is certainly very much in keeping with the times.

Here, there are as many as 612 first-choice applicants for the 100 planned places.

"It looks as though we’ve hit the mark in terms of the needs of the labour market. Applicants for this programme are slightly older than the average UiA student, so there are probably many who want to bring this expertise into their jobs", says Inntjore.

Here is the current status of UiA’s largest degree programmes

Application figures for Economics and Administration are rising slightly. Both the bachelor’s programme and the five-year Master of Business Administration programme have seen growth, and now have 494 and 200 first-choice applicants respectively for 150 and 100 places.

For nursing programmes, there is a slight decline nationally, and also for UiA’s programmes at Campus Grimstad and Campus Kristiansand. The figures are nevertheless solid enough to fill the places. There are 242 and 585 first-choice applicants respectively for 149 and 176 places.

There is still cause for some concern when it comes to teacher training programmes. There has been a decline in applications for primary school teacher training programmes for both Years 1–7 and Years 5–10, and the situation remains most serious for Years 5–10. Here, there are only 77 first-choice applicants for 110 places.

There will likely also be vacant places on the full-time early childhood teacher training programme. However, UiA has struck the right note with its newly established part-time programme, which is launching this year at Campus Grimstad. There are 55 first-choice applicants for 20 places.

For the teacher training programmes (Years 8 to upper secondary school), the picture is mixed, with specialisations in PE, history and social studies proving most popular. The number of first-choice applicants for the latter specialisation has doubled from 18 last year to 37 this year.

It looks as though there may be vacant places for several of the other specialisations, such as Norwegian, mathematics, natural sciences, religion and foreign languages.

There are various routes into UiA’s engineering programmes at bachelor’s level through Samordna opptak (Coordinated Admissions System) and local admissions at UiA. When we look at the overall picture, we see that:

• The flexible civil engineering programme, which attracted a very high number of applicants last year when it was newly launched (191 applicants for 30 places), continues to enjoy very strong interest. 122 applicants this year
• The civil engineering programme has seen an increase from 134 to 152 applicants for 60 places
• The mechatronics programme is stable, with 187 applicants for 120 places
• The computer engineering programme has seen a slight decline, from 223 to 181 applicants for 120 places
• The renewable energy programme is stable, but has only 63 applicants for 70 places (vacant places will be advertised!)

The Electronics programme remains stable, with 65 applicants for 40 places

Vacant places are likely to be made available on several of the engineering programmes.

At master’s level, it is particularly pleasing that the five-year programme in artificial intelligence has seen a sharp increase from 17 to 42 first-choice applicants for 35 places.

All application figures from the Coordinated Admissions System are now published on their website.

Vacant places at UiA will be advertised on an ongoing basis from the start of May

Contact person at UiA:

Hilde Inntjore

Vice-Rector

Email

hilde.inntjore@uia.no

Phone

+47 45 29 96 71