In 1996, the current university in Trondheim was formed in a merger of several institutions of higher education, and the name of the new univerisity became "Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet", usually shortened to NTNU. If you translate the name into English, you get something like "Norwegian University of Technology and Science", however the official English name of the university is "Norwegian University of Science and Technology". Almost since I became a student here in 2002, I have been wondering if they changed the name because they thought it sounded better, or because they wanted to avoid the unfortunate acronym.

Yesterday, I happened to meet a former rector of my University in the elevator, and I used this opportunity to ask if he knew the history of the English name. He laughed a bit, and confirmed that the English name had been "Norwegian University of Science and Technology" from the beginning, and that the reason was the acronym. So now we know.

-Tor Nordam