On Friday November 22 a festival of European Cooperation was held in Reykjavík. At the festival fifty projects from different EU Cooperation Programmes were presented and amongst them was the EILC (European Intensive Language Course) which the University Centre of the Westfjords has offered since 2008. In addition to presenting the project at the festival the University Centre was awarded the 2012 Erasmus Quality Award for the EILC course.

The University Centre has offered courses in Icelandic for foreigners since 2007 but in 2008 it began offering the EILC course for Erasmus exchange students coming to Iceland to study at the university level. From the beginning the EILC course has been offered at the old boarding school at Núpur which is now a summer hotel. Students have lived and studied at Núpur and Ísafjörður but also travelled in the vicinity for learning purposes.

As is stated in the award document the course and its location have been well received by the students: “The stay at Núpur and Ísafjörður has been a great experience for the students and given them insight into Icelandic culture that would otherwise not have been accessible. Students have bonded closely during their stay and many of them have mentioned this as invaluable.” The award document also clearly states that the quality of teaching and welcoming of students has been of the highest standard: “Each year a course assessment has been performed by an external party. In 2008 the result of this assessment was good but has since then been better each year. The University Centre has aspired to offer a high quality teaching and has done its utmost to provide students with a warm welcome to the course.”

The award is a great motivation for the University Centre to develop the language courses even further and keep up the work that began in 2007.