Nesna is a small community of about 1,800 people where you arrive after the ferry from Levang across the Ranfjord. It looks like any quiet coastal village, but this place triggered one of the biggest political fights in Northern Norway in recent years.
Nesna had a university college since 1918, training teachers for the whole region. In 2016 it was merged into Nord University, headquartered in Bodø, with promises that all campuses would be strengthened. Three years later, in June 2019, Nord University announced it was closing the Nesna campus. The official reason was to centralise education. The actual saving was two percent of the university's total budget. In a village of 1,800 people where 68 were on the university payroll, this was an existential blow.
What happened next was remarkable. A grassroots movement called Folkeaksjonen for høyere utdanning på Helgeland grew to over 20,000 members. To put that in perspective, the entire Helgeland region has about 80,000 people. A quarter of the population joined the protest. Six thousand people showed up at a protest concert in Namsos. The closure became an election issue in 2021, and the incoming Labour-Centre government made reopening Nesna a priority. By autumn 2022 the campus was back, and the government changed the law so that universities can no longer close campuses without ministry approval.
From Nesna, Road 17 follows the fjord Sjona northward. The drive around the fjord takes a while but the scenery is consistently good.
Nesna had a university college since 1918, training teachers for the whole region. In 2016 it was merged into Nord University, headquartered in Bodø, with promises that all campuses would be strengthened. Three years later, in June 2019, Nord University announced it was closing the Nesna campus. The official reason was to centralise education. The actual saving was two percent of the university's total budget. In a village of 1,800 people where 68 were on the university payroll, this was an existential blow.
What happened next was remarkable. A grassroots movement called Folkeaksjonen for høyere utdanning på Helgeland grew to over 20,000 members. To put that in perspective, the entire Helgeland region has about 80,000 people. A quarter of the population joined the protest. Six thousand people showed up at a protest concert in Namsos. The closure became an election issue in 2021, and the incoming Labour-Centre government made reopening Nesna a priority. By autumn 2022 the campus was back, and the government changed the law so that universities can no longer close campuses without ministry approval.
From Nesna, Road 17 follows the fjord Sjona northward. The drive around the fjord takes a while but the scenery is consistently good.