This winter's classes at the master's program started on Monday, September 3. The students come from all over Europe and North America. In addition to the CMM master's students, two Erasmus exchange students from Van Laren Stein Hall School in the Netherlands will take courses during the fall semester. This year's group is diverse; the youngest master's student is 21 years old and the oldest in his fifties.

The first course covers Iceland's environment and resources, as well as the major issues that have emerged over the past decade regarding the use and/or protection of Iceland's environment and resources. The teacher of the course is George Haney, who taught the same course last year.

Starting the program with an elective course on current and recent Icelandic issues has worked well so far. It has proven to increase students' awareness, most of whom are non-Icelanders, of the situation in Iceland.

In addition to the course, the students have also attended a seminar at the PEMABO conference on energy and communities, held in Ísafjörður from September 3-4.

In the coming days, the group will have a two-day field trip to the the Southern West Fjords where they will get to know the environment, natural resources, transportation issues and the range of research opportunities in the area.