Last Saturday, the new UW master’s students went on a trip to Vigur Island, an Arctic island located in the northwest of Iceland, renowned for its importance as a habitat for birdlife and its eiderdown collection. The group consisted of UW master’s students from the Coastal Marine Management program and the Coastal Communities and Regional Development program. Also with them were master’s students from the Climate Change and Global Sustainability (CCGS) program at the School of International Training in Vermont. The CCGS students are spending a semester with us here at UW.

Our academic director, Matthias, and two of our master students recently went on a trip to the Faroe Islands. They joined the GLISFO workshop: Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands Cooperation Workshop. This three-day workshop brought together researchers operating within Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, to delve into areas of scientific significance and shared interest between the West Nordic countries. Organized by the Research Council of the Faroe Islands, the Greenland Research Council, Rannís – The Icelandic Centre for Research, and the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network, this workshop was intended to be a platform for meaningful exchange of ideas, insights and experiences and the kick-off for future scientific cooperation within the West Nordic community. The workshop covered all areas that are of relevance for the University Centre of the Westfjords and its research activities as well as course contents. Seminars and panels addressed green energy; social sciences; security/geopolitics; ocean, climate, and the Blue Economy; sustainability and culture; and health/genetics.

It's thesis defense season again at the University Centre of the Westfjords. The first defense starts on Tuesday September 3rd. During this defense season 13 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.

Today and tomorrow are orientation days at the University Centre of the Westfjords, where master's students are being welcomed and the new academic year is beginning. The student group present today consists of UW master's students enrolled in two programs: Coastal Marine Management and Coastal Communities and Regional Development. Also present were master's students in the Climate Change and Global Sustainability master’s program at the School of International Training in Vermont, who will stay at UW for one semester.

UW’s master’s students have participated in a field course in Húsavík for many years, which is held during the summer by the Research Center of the University of Iceland in Húsavík. The course is called "Methods for Research on Marine Mammals" and is part of the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iceland. It is stated on the University of Iceland’s website that 25 students from various countries participated in the course this year, and a large part of them were UW students. UW students participate in the course as guest students, but over 10 years ago, state universities established a system that makes it much easier for guest students to take individual courses at other universities. UW participates in this system since students are officially enrolled at the University of Akureyri. Through the system, UW both receives and sends out students.

The convocation was held yesterday on the national day of Iceland at Hrafnseyri where it was embedded in the national day’s festivities. With the convocation we celebrated the graduation of the students from the master’s programmes at UW, as well the graduation of distance learning students in the Westfjords. We had lovely weather and a very pleasant convocation celebration. As per usual, there was a cake buffet, soup, a music performance and the graduation ceremony. Graduates received their diploma from Eyjólfur Guðmundsson Rector of the University of Akureyri. Students also received a knitted diploma hat and a small tree that many graduates have planted at the hillside behind the church at Hrafnseyri, an area that is starting to resemble a growing forest of saplings, bigger each year.

Today, the general meeting of UW took place. Peter Weiss, director of UW presented the annual report for 2023, which included an overview of positions, master's programs, marketing, distance learning, research and collaboration and much more at UW.

We recently wrote about UW’s summer school, which is an international cooperation. Each year, UW visits one of the partnering countries and learns about their approaches on "smart shrinking" as a development approach for de-populating regions. This year UW is the hosting country. The group, which consists of seven UW students in the Coastal Communities and Regional Development master's program, Matthias Kokorch academic director, and 24 students from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, are currently travelling in north-Iceland, visiting small municipalities.

There have been many new faces at UW in the past few days. 13 students from SeaTech, the French school of engineering, are interns at UW for a total of 17 weeks. The interns are master’s students in marine engineering and are undergoing training here under the guidance of Björn Erlingsson.

On Friday, May 17th, the permanent online exhibition of the SeaGirls project opens. The SeaGirls project gave girls in Iceland disposable film cameras for the summer to understand their relationships and perspectives of the ocean. This project was a collaboration between the University Centre of the Westfjords, Vestfjörður Regional Museum, Hversdagsafnið and funding was provided from Rannís Nýsköpunarsjóður and Uppbyggðingarsjóður as part of the growing international dialogue on gender and the ocean.