University of Iceland To Be among the World’s Top Ten

The University of Iceland held a graduation ceremony recently for bachelor and masters students. At the ceremony two years ago, the rector announced the new goals for the university. In this year’s graduation speech she took the goals from 2006 even further.

Two years ago, Kristín Ingólfsdóttir, the rector of the University of Iceland announced that the university would aim at to be among the top 100 universities in the world before 2011, when the university celebrates its 100th anniversary.

More recentky she announced new and even more challenging goals. The university is still aiming for a seat on the top 100 list, but Ingólfsdóttir’s envisions going even further and now the goal is to get one of the university’s five faculties on the top ten list. Fréttabladid reports.

There has been a lot of discussion on how to fund such ambitious goals, with the central issue of whether the University of Iceland should charge tuition. According to Icelandic law, the state university may not charge tuition, but Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, has made some changes in the legal framework surrounding universities so there is a legal possibility for charging school fees. However, the university’s administration has not yet made any decision on the matter. Ingólfsdóttir made no comments as to whether she would support the use of tuition.