Easter is just around the corner, and like every year, UW will be taking a short spring break! The building will be closed on Good Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19. During these days, the Suðurgata entrance will be locked and access with key cards won’t be available — even the most dedicated students and staff will need to take a well-deserved pause. If something urgent comes up, you can reach us at 844 3148.

It's thesis defense season again at the University Centre of the Westfjords. The first defense starts on Tuesday April 22nd. During this defense season 16 students will defend their theses in the coming weeks with many interesting topics. The defenses are open to the public and people are also invited to join through zoom. The links can be found in the table below.

We’re excited to welcome Rebecca Eriksson to our team as a researcher for the coming year! At the University Centre of the Westfjords, we’re committed to involving our students in meaningful research—and in recent years, we’ve seen a growing number of our master’s students become involved in both national and international research projects.

Tómas Jóhannsson, a specialist in avalanche hazard assessment at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, recently visited the Avalanche Research Center in the Westfjords, bringing with him a car trunk full of journals for the UW library. Tómas is on the editorial board of Jökull, a journal on glaciology, and has for years subscribed to the Journal of Glaciology and Annals of Glaciology. He felt these journals would be best placed where the public could access them, and they will now benefit both students at UW and staff in the building. UW is a member of the University of the Arctic network (UArctic.org), and its academic programs include Climate Change and Global Sustainability as well as a field course on climate change and energy resources. Students in these programs will have a particular interest in these journals.

The University Centre of the Westfjords (UW) has secured a NordForsk grant for the "ARCHAIC" project (Sustainable and Resilient Communities in remote settlements in the Arctic in the Age of Climate Change). The overall objective of the project is to generate new knowledge about current and future climate adaptation and handling of natural hazard events in remote settlements in the Arctic, fostering sustainability and resilience.  Secondary research objectives are to develop new knowledge and solutions related to 1) the climate risk picture and community resilience, 2) early warning systems, 3) relocation from high-risk areas, 4) emergency preparedness and crisis management, and 5) transfer of climate adaptation experience from the Arctic.

The University Centre of the Westfjords (UW) received a generous gift at a recent open house event held in Vestrahús. The gift is an 86” screen called the Maxhub XBoard MTR, which combines a meeting display, Teams Rooms video conferencing equipment, a whiteboard, and wireless connectivity into one device. The donation comes from Þorsteinn Jóhannesson and his wife, Margrét Hreinsdóttir. Þorsteinn Jóhannesson is well known in Ísafjörður as the former chief physician at the regional hospital for nearly 30 years. He has also been active in municipal affairs and, most notably, played a key role in the founding of UW, with his company, Skurðlæknirinn ehf., being one of its founding members.

The University Centre of the Westfjords (UW) has been awarded a highly competitive NordForsk grant for the "LostToClimate" project, which will explore the unavoidable non-economic losses experienced by Arctic communities due to climate change. This collaborative effort brings together scientists and community members from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and the United States, including several Indigenous communities, to co-produce knowledge that can inform future adaptation strategies.

At the annual general meeting of the University Centre of the Westfjords last Friday, March 14, 2025, where all the founding members are gathered, UW director announced under other matters his intention to pass the baton during 2025.

Last Friday, UW marked its 20th anniversary with an open house at Vestrahús. Several other institutions in the building also participated in the celebration, which featured a diverse program and exceeded expectations for attendance. The day began with the annual meeting, which is typically held in May, but this time was scheduled closer to UW’s founding date to coincide with the anniversary and integrated with the open house.

The annual meeting of the board and founding members of UW, will be held on Friday March 14th at 13:00. UW is a nonprofit educational institute and the annual meeting is open to guests. Previous years the annual meeting has taken place in May, but on the occasion of UW's 20th anniversary, the board decided to honour the founders with an annual meeting closer to the day UW was founded, March 12th. Founding UW, an higher educational institute was a bold step at that time, given the fact that the number of inhabitants in the Westfjords is only around 7500 people. Since then, UW  has become an active link in Iceland's higher education landscape and a beacon for learning outside the capital area.