University of Iceland

The University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands) is the national public university of Iceland, in Reykjavík. It was founded in 1911 by merging a theological seminary, a medical school, and a school of law, and later added faculties in the humanities, sciences, and education. It is a comprehensive state university, not a private or single-field institute.

Five schools cover social sciences, health sciences, humanities, education, and engineering and natural sciences. Earth sciences, glaciology and volcanology, Icelandic language and medieval studies, and health research tied to national population registers are established fields. The main campus is at Suðurgata by Vatnsmýri, with the National and University Library of Iceland nearby. The Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages is one named center.

About 14,000 students are enrolled, including several hundred international students from dozens of countries. Staff number about 1,500. Alumni include Icelandic heads of government and scholars of the North Atlantic; former president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is tied to the language institute that bears her name.

Graduate degrees include two-year master's programs, some taught in English, and the Ph.D. by research under a supervisor. The academic year follows the Nordic autumn-to-spring pattern. Doctoral students are often employed on grants or as university staff. Reykjavík is a small capital; campus, government, and institutes sit close together, while geology and environment fieldwork regularly takes students out of the city.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Iceland lists 1 master's program, in mathematics. University of Iceland holds rank 481 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.