Within the field of medicine, most professorships are professor II positions combined with a main position as a senior consultant at a university hospital (full-time professorships in clinical medicine are very rare).
Professors II may engage in teaching, supervision (typically of PhD candidates) or research.
The title is protected by law, and may only be used by a select number of accredited institutions under certain conditions.
[3] Prior to 1990, all professors were appointed for life by the King upon the advice of the cabinet, that is, by the King-in-Council; they thus held the elevated status of embedsmann (a higher civil servant appointed directly by the King who could not be terminated unless convicted by the Supreme Court).
In the 19th and parts of the 20th century, the appointment of a professor was a clearly political decision that often involved cabinet-level proceedings; from the 20th century, with the increasing number of appointments and the establishment of more universities, the cabinet-level proceedings became routine in most cases, and nearly always followed the recommendations of the universities' own committees.
[4] At the University of Oslo, professors are in theory expected to dedicate 50% of their time to research and the other 50% to teaching and related duties.
In some cases retired professors may keep their office, and they usually have access to university infrastructure as long as they are still active as researchers.
In the official hierarchy of civil servants, professors traditionally formed part of the chief executive group (sjefsregulativet) alongside e.g. directors-general in government ministries and supreme court justices, with a salary in the top one percentage of all government employees.
The annual salary of full professors varies between around 75,000 and in excess of 100,000 euro, often depending on the institution and discipline, with the highest salaries found at the law faculty of the country's preeminent university, the University of Oslo.
Research professors are almost always permanent employees (equivalent to tenure) and tend to be internationally leading academics.
Hence, the title of research professor is often viewed as the highest possible rank in Norwegian academia, de facto ranking above the average full professor (Norway does not have named chairs or distinguished professorships).
Research professors originally received exactly the same salary as ordinary full professors in the top one percentage of all public employees in Norway; the salaries of both groups are no longer centrally regulated, but are still roughly comparable.
They sometimes hold part-time professorial chairs at universities or colleges, so-called professor II positions, in order to be able to devote a smaller amount of their time to teaching and maintain contact with a teaching environment.
By law the position requires as a minimum a Norwegian doctoral degree, or similar competence.
The rank of senior researcher (Norwegian: seniorforsker or forsker II), now with code 1109/1110, was introduced in the state in 1959 as equivalent to the associate professor position.
Researchers in this position code are, as a general rule, permanently employed in the institute sector.
The competence requirement for the position is stipulated in the Government Personnel Handbook as "Norwegian doctoral degree, or foreign doctoral degree approved as equivalent to Norwegian doctoral degree, or Norwegian associate professor competence, or documented competence at equivalent level through scientific work of similar scope and quality".
[7] The rank of researcher (Norwegian: forsker III), now with code 1108, was introduced in the state in 1959 as equivalent to university lecturer and assistant professor positions.
Norway has three junior ranks intended to qualify the holders for careers in research.
Often the position is a stepping stone to become a research fellow and enrol in a doctoral programme.
Research fellow (stipendiat) is a temporary employee who is enrolled in a doctoral program.
A postdoctoral fellow earns slightly less than an assistant professor, on average around 50,000 euro annually.