The State of Educational Research in Iceland

Kristin Hardardottir
School of Education, University of Iceland
February 2012

In Iceland there are two Universities that are involved in educational research and teaching.  They are The University of Akureyri (UNAK) who is the largest university in the rural district and the University of Iceland who is the largest university in Iceland, situated in the heart of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. Both universities are state university.

The University of Iceland is the leading institution of research and higher education in Iceland; it is a progressive educational and scientific institution, renowned for research in the global scientific community. A modern, diversified and rapidly developing institution, the University of Iceland offers opportunities for study and research in almost 300 programmes spanning most fields of science and scholarship. The University of Iceland is organized into five schools: Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities, Education, Natural Sciences and Engineering. About 14 thousand students are enrolled and around thirteen hundred staff and faculty are in its employ. The mission of the University of Iceland is to become one of the leading research universities in Europe.

The School of Education at the University of Iceland, educates teachers for preschools, primary schools and upper secondary schools, sports and health scenes, social educators and leisure professionals. All academic programmes at the School of Education are strongly linked to the workplaces of those professions the school educates, such as schools and other societal institutions. The School of Education is divided into three faculties: the faculty of Education Studies, the faculty of Teacher Education and the faculty of Sport, Leisure Studies and Social Education.

The School of Education is the principal institution in the fields of education and training in Iceland, and has over 1.226 students enrolled in undergraduate programs, and an increasing number of master’s and doctoral students. In the year 2012, there were 71 doctoral students and 823 master’s students doing their graduate degree training at the School of Education, many from other European countries. The School of Education also hosts vibrant exchange student programs.

At the School of Education diverse research is carried out in the field of education, pedagogy and training for the purpose of creating new knowledge for the benefit of society. The faculty at the School of Education (140 individuals) come from diverse scholarly and vocational disciplines, providing a truly interdisciplinary training and research in the field of education. As a result, research collaboration is common, both domestically and with researchers and teams in Europe. Emphasis is placed on vigorous support service for teaching, studying and research, and the support service alone employs about 30 people.
Several research institutions belong to the School of Education, among them the Centre for Research in Educational Leadership, Innovation, and Educational Evaluation, the Centre for Research on ICT and Media in Education, and the Research Centre for Educational Studies. The goal of these research institutions is to strengthen and promote educational research in Iceland.

The School of Education enjoys close ties with the workplace, especially as it provides advice, empirical evidence, and guidelines for those interested in education, training, and skill acquisition.

In Iceland there is one main financier funding research in education: is through RANNIS – The Icelandic Centre for Research. NThe Icelandic government appropriations to research and development, as stated in the national budget was in 2011 around 94 MEUR. Approximately 40% of the contribution was allocated to the higher education sector and 30% to various public institutions. Competitive funding of research and development was approximately 12 MEUR, and the account for 17% of the total R&D expenditure.  Around 19% of the total budget goes to Social Sciences, Education and Humanities, but all these fields fall under the same R&D advisory board.