University of Agder (Norwegian: Universitetet i Agder) is a public university located in both Kristiansand and Grimstad, Norway. The institution was established as a University college in 1994 with the merger of six colleges and was granted its current status as a University in 2007, but its academic activity dates as far back as 1839. It is one of eight universities in Norway, with the other seven being the University of Oslo, the University of Tromsø, the University of Stavanger, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and the University of Nordland in Bodø. The idea of a university in the Agder region is not completely new. In his short period as ruler of the union of Denmark–Norway, Johann Friedrich Struensee planned on reforming the University of Copenhagen. He gave Bishop Johann Ernst Gunnerus of Trondheim the task of developing more detailed plans. Gunnerus presented a proposal in 1771 in which he suggested establishing a new university in Norway, and placing it in Kristiansand. The motives for suggesting Kristiansand as a university town have been debated.