The Norwegian degree system has changed substantially since the mid-1980's. Prior to 1987, the Doctorate (Dr.Philos.) was still normally achieved only late in life, often after attainment of full professorship. The highest degree below the Dr.Philos. was the Mag.Art. (Magister Artium), which was the qualifying degree for university positions and the highest academic degree most Norwegian anthropologists achieved. The demands were long-term fieldwork (rarely less than a year), often in non-Western contexts, and often including acquisition of a field language.  Most dissertations were sophisticated studies, and many approached the scale of full monographs (300 pages or more).

Starting in 1987, a new degree system was introduced. A new Doctorate (Dr.Polit.) was established, modelled on the American Ph.D. A few years later, the Mag.Art. was abolished, but it remains a close equivalent to an international Ph.D., and may still (depending on the quality of the thesis work) qualify for tenured positions at Scandinavian universities in competition with candidates with formal Doctorates. This happened in my own case in 1995, when I was given tenure by an independent scholarly committee that judged my Mag.Art. thesis to be equivalent to a Dr.Polit.