I've referred to my time as an exchange student in Iceland before.

Indeed, it was a great time. Mostly because my host university; the University of Iceland was fabulous.

The university was founded on June 17, 1911, and is the oldest university in Iceland. It’s unbelievable that Iceland didn't have a university before that.

The founding of this educational institution was celebrated by the Icelanders as it was considered to be key to shaping Icelandic nationalism and creating a basis for an independent state.

I would say it has fulfilled this purpose.

For the first 29 years, HÍ (short for Háskóli Íslands; “University of Iceland”), was facilitated at the parliamentary building at the Austurvöllur square in downtown Reykjavík.

To be precise, lectures were given only on the lower floor of the building because the university didn't have any space reserved for its operations yet.

However, this was no problem in the beginning, since in the first academic year of 1911/1912 only 45 students enrolled. One of whom was a woman, by the way.

Wow, that one female student must have had an interesting time there. I would love to know more about her experience at HÍ.

In comparison, in the academic year of 2008/2009 more than 13,000 students were registered at the University of Iceland, two thirds of whom were women.

Anyhow, the only subjects taught back in 1911/1912 were theology, medicine, law and Old Icelandic, in addition to philosophical logic.

Well, all beginnings are difficult.

The early days of the University of Iceland. Source: hi.is (originally from the National Museum of Iceland).

Gradually, more and more people enrolled at the university and after long negotiations with the government a new campus was built.

In 1940, HÍ moved into its current main building on Suðurgata; the main campus is located in the Vatnsmýrin area and the west side of Reykjavík (Vesturbær).

If you'd like to learn more about the history of the University of Iceland, click here.

Since its move the university area and its facilities have grown considerably.

In 2006, when I was still a more or less hard-working student, there was a big construction site between the faculty houses.

This was to become the latest addition to HÍ, the University Centre, which was taken into use at the end of 2007.

Of course I missed it.

As of today, the University of Iceland has five academic schools, each comprised of a number of faculties.

The academic schools are the School of Education, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, School of Health Sciences, School of Humanities (which was my department) and School of Social Sciences.

Needless to say, a number of research and service institutions are run by this alma mater.

The current rector is Kristín Ingólfsdóttir, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

Under her reign, the University of Iceland has set itself the long-term goal of becoming one of the 100 leading universities in the world.

A noble and ambitious goal.

I have no idea where HÍ currently ranks. But from what I know, HÍ has a very good academic reputation, especially on the field of geology.

Also, during my time at the university, I had very good and enthusiastic teachers who were able to motivate their students.

Even me.

They were friendly and helpful when students approached them after lectures with questions.

To my delight, the school used modern and useful teaching techniques and managed to spark the students' interest.

Most of the time, at least.

What is so special about modern studying techniques? Aren't they used everywhere?

Nope, back home in Germany at my alma mater, modern teaching meant using multi-colored pens when writing on foil for the presentation with the overhead projector.

At HÍ, every student has an account at the university computer network called Ugla (“Owl”) where one can access individual course schedules, assignments, homework, reading lists and everything else a student needs.

This is something that was entirely new to me.

Everything was suddenly well-organized and quite clearly arranged.

If I wanted to sign up for a course I simply had to register online for it via Ugla instead of having to go to the faculty in person and having to push other students out of my way to write my name on a list of participants.

Wonderful.

If you are considering coming to Iceland to study, please do so.

The University of Iceland is great and getting better every year.

Your academic career is in good hands.

Katharina Hauptmann – katha.hauptmann@gmail.com