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. The University of Iceland is a state university, situated in the heart of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. A modern, diversified, and rapidly developing institution, the University of Iceland offers opportunities for study and research in 337 programs, 102 undergraduate programs, 172 master programs and 63 Ph.D. programs, 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 13 thousand students are enrolled and around fifteen hundred staff and faculty are in its employ.
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 programs 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 programs provide a wide range of professional options, and serve as a good foundation for further studies. 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 1.050 students enrolled in undergraduate programs, and an increasing number of master’s and doctoral students. In the year 2014, there were 84 doctoral students and 715 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 comes 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.