Reykjavík University

Reykjavík University
Háskólinn í Reykjavík
Established	1998
Type	Private
President	Dr. Ari Kristinn Jónsson
Academic staff	320 (part-time teachers 200)
Admin. staff	100
Students	2,883 (2009)
Location	Reykjavík, Iceland
Campus	Urban
Colors	Red
Website	http://www.ru.is/

Reykjavík University (Háskólinn í Reykjavík), also known as RU, is the largest private university in Reykjavík, Iceland. It is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers.

Reykjavík University is the largest private university in the country with more than 3,000 students and over 500 employees (professors come from over 26 countries). The university is fully bilingual (English and Icelandic) by the beginning of 2010, and it consists of four academic schools: School of Law, School of Business, School of Computer Science and the School of Science and Engineering.

The university's Executive MBA program was awarded 5-year accreditation by the London-based international accreditation organisation Association of MBAs (AMBA) in October 2011.

History

Reykjavík University has its roots in The Commercial College of Iceland, School of Computer Science (TVÍ), founded in January 1988 and run in The Commercial College of Iceland (VÍ) housing for ten years.

Reykjavík University started its first semester on September 1, 1998 in a new building under the name Reykjavík School of Business. TVÍ became one of two departments within the school. A name change was inevitable because the school's name was not descriptive for the variety of the school's operations.

In January 2000 the name was changed to Reykjavík University. In the autumn of 2002 the School of Law was established at Reykjavík University and in 2005 Reykjavík University was merged with the Technical University of Iceland (THÍ) under the name Reykjavík University. Following the merger, the School of Science and Engineering was established, partly built upon the old foundation of THÍ with the addition of new engineering fields.

Reykjavík University sponsoring both the Icelandic Center for Research on Software Engineering and the Icelandic Institute of Intelligent Machines.

In the autumn 2005 the School of Health and Education was established in Reykjavík University.

Administration

Dr. Ari Kristinn Jónsson has been appointed the president of Reykjavik University succeeding Dr. Svafa Grönfeldt from January 2010. The chairman of the university council (Háskólaráð) is Finnur Oddsson, CEO of Iceland Chamber of Commerce.

Schools and Offerings

The university features five schools:

• School of Law:
• School of Business
• School of Science and Engineering
• School of Computer Science
• School of Health and Education

In addition, Reykjavík University offers Executive Education for managers and business professionals. All the Schools offer a three-year study programme leading to a BSc or BA degree. In addition all five Schools offer Graduate programmes.

HMV is a programme that enables people to study and work full-time at the same time. Students in HMV are offered shorter diploma programmes as well as a BSc study. The School of Business and School of Computer Science offer HMV. In addition to the five schools Reykjavík University has an Open University that serves individuals and the business community with a range of courses.

Campus

Reykjavik University operates in Nauthólsvík in a new building that opened in January 2010.

External links

• Reykjavík University - Official homepage
• Reykjavík University - English homepage
• Reykjavík University - Schools
• Reykjavik University's Students Association - Official homepage
• The Commercial College of Iceland - Official homepage
• Iceland Chamber of Commerce - Official homepage
• Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents - RU's artificial intelligence laboratory