About LBHI

Agricultural University of Iceland | Hvanneyri, IS - 311 Borgarnes | tel.: 433 5000 | fax: 433 5001

The Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI)

Roles and Objectives
The Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) was founded on 1 January 2005. It is an educational and research institution in the field of agriculture and environmental sciences. The main focus is on the conservation and sustainable use of land and animal resources, including traditional agriculture, horticulture and forestry, environmental planning, restoration sciences, rural development and sustainable development.

The AUI awards B.Sc. degrees in these fields, and is entitled to award both M.Sc. and PhD degrees as well as providing vocational and continuing education.

The overall objective of AUI is to pursue high quality education in its academic fields supported by competitive nationally and internationally oriented research programs provided by competent and dedicated staff. AUI should also be an active participant in sustainable development of the Icelandic society and represent the country in the global forum in its academic fields.

Co-operation and agreements with other universities
There is a formal co-operation between the agricultural and veterinary Universities of the Nordic Countries (NOVA Network) with joint courses being offered and a mutual recognition of coursework. Currently joint M.Sc. programs are being developed in soil science, forestry and other fields. In addition the Nordic Universities offer joint Ph.D. courses in many fields. AUI has, for example been an activie participant in a PhD course in Plant Breeding since 1974, hosting this course twice.

Furthermore, there are formal agreements with other universities, such as Guelph University (Canada), Ålborg University, Denmark, University of Tromsö, Norway, Purdue University, Italy and Ohio State University, USA and other agreements are currently being formalized. Students that have graduated from the AUI have received full recognition abroad for their
coursework undertaken at the AUI.

The university is comprised of three faculties: the Faculty of Land and Animal Resources, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Vocational and Continuing Education. While the principal language of instruction is Icelandic, most textbooks other than in the applied programmes are in English. The university does not sponsor Icelandic language courses.

University programmes
Four programmes are available at the undergraduate level (for a BS degree): Agricultural Sciences, Natural Resources and Environmental Science, Forestry, and Environmental and Landscape Planning. Postgraduate programmes (for the MS and PhD degrees) are available in Agricultural Sciences and in Natural Resources and Environmental Science.

Applied programmes – national diplomas
The university offers a range of applied programmes in agriculture and horticulture .

Distance learning
Opportunities are provided for distance learning in a number of courses at university level and in most courses belonging to the applied programmes.

Continuing education
The university's Faculty of Continuing Education offers a wide selection of courses each year.

Research
Extensive research is conducted at the university in the area of agricultural- environmental- and natural sciences.

The Agricultural University's main campus, including all significant facilities, is located at Hvanneyri in Borgarfjörður, West Iceland. The university also has operations at Keldnaholt in Reykjavík, Reykjar in Ölfus, and at a number of experiment stations at additional Icelandic locations.

The Board of the Agricultural University of Iceland
Ágúst Sigurðsson, Rector, Áslaug Helgadóttir, Dean for the Faculty of Animal and Land Resources and prorector of research, Björn Þorsteinsson, Prorector of education, Guðríður Helgadóttir, Head of the Faculty of Vocational and Continuing Education, Ólafur Arnalds, Dean for the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Þorvaldur T. Jónsson, Head of fiscal affairs