This morning a new group of students enrolled in the Iceland and Greenland: Climate Change and the Arctic program arrived in Ísafjörður. This study abroad program is offered by the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont USA in collaboration with the University Centre and was launched in 2016. The field based, semester-long program is taught on bachelor level and is offered both fall and spring semesters. The students get to see various parts of Iceland and they also do a two-week tour to Greenland.

The University Centre of the Westfjords and the SIT have collaborated since 2007 on the short summer program SIT Iceland: Renewable Energy, Technology, and Resource Economics and in 2012 the collaboration was extended as homestays were introduced. Homestays have since been offered to SIT students and since 2016 also for students on the semester program, which was launched in 2016. Host family are generally enthousiastic about the homestay arrangement and by now more than 70 families have opened their homes to SIT students. The University Centre is indeed grateful to all these families.

With this new field school new positions in the field of higher education teaching and research were created in the region. This semester PhD student Daniel Govoni, resident in Ísafjörður has taken on the role as Program Director, assisted by Jennifer Smith and Alexandra Tyas, both graduates of the Coastal and Marine Management master’s program.

We welcome the new SIT group to Ísafjörður and look forward to hosting these students during the next few weeks.