Following the ACM curriculum in computer science was also a good idea; even though Tromsų has the smallest faculty, the curriculum is small but as well balanced as any in Norway.
It is very unusual for a doctorate program to have no faculty with doctorates. This must be corrected soon. It is in the best long term interest for both the university and for the faculty to offer and encourage extended leaves of absence to allow faculty to earn doctorates. Teaching vacancies created by leaves should be filled by visitors.
The group has excellent international contacts, but like other groups it has no national collaborators. It seems wise for the smallest and youngest faculty to establish links to other Norwegian universities.
The location of Tromsų and the lack of success in filling positions suggest that it may be necessary to offer greater incentives to attract professors to Tromsų. (This is the only department where 100 % of the faculty graduated from the university where they were working, which also suggests it is difficult to recruit here.) It is critically important to fill the three professor positions. Because of the competitiveness for Computer Science positions, many universities internationally offer a higher salary for Computer Science faculty. To combat geographic disadvantages, Canada offers a special salary incentive to encourage people to work in the northernmost part of the country. Norway should offer some economic enticement to attract faculty to Tromsų, the northernmost Computer Science department in the world.
As long as some of the professorships are not filled, the salary saved should be utilized for visiting positions and filled with persons where there is a good chance of later establishing a collaborative relationship e.g. by converting to Professor II positions.
The research in distributed systems done at Tromsų needs parallel computing equipment, but they should look for it at Bergen or Trondheim over the network. It is unrealistic for a small group in Computer Science to expect a multimillion dollar computer system for their own use.