Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2011, Blaðsíða 21

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2011
Iceland Academy of the Arts (Lis-
taháskóli Íslands) was founded in
1999 and it’s the only university in
Iceland dedicated to the arts. We
called up Rector Hjálmar H. Rag-
narsson and asked him to tell us
more about the university, its pro-
grammes and its future plans.
First of all, what is the Iceland
Academy of the Arts? What’s being
taught there?
The Iceland Academy of the Arts is a
university level institution providing
education in the arts—design and ar-
chitecture, fine arts, music, theatre
and dance, and art education. The pro-
grammes are mostly on the bachelor’s
level, but there are also master’s pro-
grammes in some fields.
We are the only institution of this
kind in Iceland, so you could say we are
a national school of arts. We emphasise
contemporary art and art creation. We
are very connected to the contempo-
rary art scene and I’d say we are a ma-
jor force in Icelandic artistic life, putting
on all kinds of exhibitions, concerts,
and performances over the year.
What about film and photography?
Why doesn’t the school have these
departments?
The only major art that we don’t have is
film. In 2004, and again in 2008, we pro-
posed a film programme, but we were
not able to get financial support from
the State. The government decided
instead to support The Icelandic Film
School, which is not at the university
level. People are very divided on the is-
sue. Still, we are hoping to get the pro-
gramme started and I’m optimistic that
we will be able to do it in next few years.
We have also proposed a plan for
a photography programme in the De-
partment of Design. In 2008 after the
crash, all the plans were put aside. We
just had to protect what we had. For
now we have a photography lab and
we have teachers coming and a special
tutor. But there’s a lot of interest and
a great need for such a programme,
which doesn’t exist in Iceland. It’s part
of our long-term plan.
What kind of person attends the
school?
We get applications from all over the
world and accept about one out of five
who apply, though in some fields it is
higher. Students send in an application
with a portfolio of work showing their
independent artistic character. Stu-
dents have to fulfil standard require-
ments, like passing the stúdentspróf
[matriculation exam] and they must
convince us that they are very passion-
ate about what they are doing, that they
are inventive and courageous.
We choose students from a large
pool and I don’t hesitate to say that our
students are some of the most gifted in
Iceland. There is no stereotypical stu-
dent, but they are all passionate about
creating something new. Today there
are about 460 students enrolled.
The Academy has been trying to
build a new facility for some years
now. Where do those plans stand?
Is there enough space for the stu-
dents?
In the fall of 2008 we had proposed
plans for an Academy at Laugavegur,
but since the collapse nothing has
happened. The State is not ready to
support [the construction] financially,
and the Reykjavík City Council has not
approved the plan for it. Everything is
frozen. There are politics involved and
opinions are divided about whether
it should be at the proposed location.
However, the Board of the Academy
adamant that it should be downtown.
An Academy should be a major force
in city life and the students also benefit
from being part of city life, rather than
being isolated from it. It’s part of art life
to connect to the city.
Now our campus is in three areas
around town so students have to travel
between facilities, which is not ideal.
Currently the Academy is financed
mostly by the State and a small part
by tuition [350.000 ISK/year]. We have
good relations with the government
and have some short-term plans for
improving the situation and long term
plans for building a new facility.
Education in the arts is extremely
important in Iceland and it has wider
importance as well. It’s a major force
in the creative industries and Iceland’s
identity is very connected to how we
form our ideas in the different fields of
art.
Is it being threatened by cutbacks?
There have been serious cutbacks, but
not more than at the other universities.
When the collapse happened we were
next in line to start new programmes
like photography and film, but those
plans are on hold for the time being.
Now our major task is the develop mas-
ter’s programmes in a greater number
of fields.
The Iceland Academy of the Arts
The only place to get an a formal arts education in Iceland
Back To School | Academy of the Arts Opinion | Magnús Sveinn Helgason
One of the more common
arguments heard in de-
bates on higher education
in Iceland, especially when
it comes to university funding, is
that there are way too many univer-
sities in Iceland. Why should Icelan-
dic taxpayers fund seven different
universities? It makes no sense!
At first glance, the statistics appear to
support this. According to figures from
the US Department of Education, the
US had some 4.474 institutions of high-
er education in 2009; that is, various
types of colleges and universities. This
means there is one institution of higher
education for every 67.000 inhabitants.
With seven such institutions, Iceland
has one for every 46.000 inhabitants.
Simple arithmetic proves that Iceland
has around two to three universities too
many.
THE CENTRAL LOGIC
So, which universities or colleges are re-
dundant? Most people seem to think Bi-
fröst University, followed by the Univer-
sity of Akureyri. Primarily because both
are small and their curriculum is not that
different from the University of Iceland
and Reykjavík University. Surely there
would be no harm in eliminating these
two: We could just as well graduate their
students from the two large universities
in Reykjavík?
And we would surely save money in
the process: We could achieve econo-
mies of scale and scope in the large
Reykjavík universities, where it would
be possible to utilise all the fixed costs
of university education better. More
students per professor and classroom
means we lower the production cost of
students with university degrees.
Because that is a central logic of
the whole “Iceland has too many uni-
versities” argument. It is not that there
are some really bad universities that
we have no use for—nobody has re-
ally made the argument that Bifröst or
the University of Akureyri are sub-par
educational institution and need to be
eliminated because they are not deliver-
ing their students good education. Nor
has anyone argued that the Universities
of Iceland and Reykjavík would provide
these students with better education.
The argument is always that by con-
centrating all the education funding,
and all the students, into larger units we
would somehow automatically be mak-
ing the most of our investment in higher
education. It is all about the presumed
efficiency of larger institutes of higher
education.
AMBITIOUS PLANS... FOR WHO?
As if higher education was like any other
modern consumer industry, where small
production units imply inefficiency, and
the goal is simply to produce more at
lower costs. BA degrees as plastic toys
for Happy Meals. If that were the case
it would make perfect sense to elimi-
nate small production units in favour of
larger, and presumably more efficient,
institutions.
But there is a second, related, argu-
ment for eliminating the small universi-
ties. By eliminating the small universi-
ties, and concentrate all our energies on
the University of Iceland where money
could be spent on research, we could
perhaps get closer to the unrealistic
goal of making it one of the “top 100
universities in the world.” But this too,
I argue, overlooks the nature of higher
education.
I do not doubt we could save money
by packing all university students in Ice-
land into the University of Iceland. And I
do not doubt we can use those savings
to finance research, which could get the
U of I closer to its ambitious goal. But
in whose interest would these changes
be? Perhaps some of the professors and
a handful of more advanced students
who would get experience as research
assistants and university administrators
and politicians who could congratulate
themselves on achieving bureaucratic
goals.
But the great majority of the students
would not benefit at all.
Why? Well, it is because the goal of
higher education is, well, education. The
goal of Icelandic University policy should
not be to have a one of the “top 100 uni-
versities in the world,” but to provide
quality university education to people.
And people are different and they
have different needs. Perhaps espe-
cially when it comes to education. While
it suits many students just fine to get
their education in large universities in
downtown Reykjavík, this does not fit
the needs of others. People can easily
get lost in the hustle and bustle of the U
of I and R U, where students and faculty
are constantly coming and going and at
times the air reminds you more of a air-
port terminal than a campus.
AN ISOLATED VILLAGE UTOPIA
The smaller universities can offer stu-
dents an intimacy these large institutions
cannot. And this intimacy is invaluable
to many students. Take the University
of Bifröst, which is really its own small
village, populated by students and uni-
versity staff, situated in the Norðurá Val-
ley in western Iceland, surrounded by
picturesque lava fields overgrown by the
kind of struggling vegetation Icelanders
like to call “forest,” and far away from
the distractions of city life. Students
don’t need to commute to school, they
are in constant and close contact with
each other and the staff, and the sur-
roundings are perfect for raising kids.
In fact, the place reminds you more
of the kind garden city imagined by late
19th century Utopian social reformers
than a campus. Which makes sense, be-
cause it was originally the “Cooperative
College,” created by the Icelandic coop-
erative movement, which was one of the
most successful cooperative movements
in Europe. That is, until it succumbed to
the demands of mass consumer society
and the logic of capital. But even if the
cooperative movement has died some of
its spirit lives in this small isolated cam-
pus village.
Now, by the logic of arithmetic this
university is obviously redundant. But by
any other logic it is invaluable to the flora
of Icelandic higher education.
What’s more, the “too many small
universities” arithmetic argument takes
our attention away from the real prob-
lem: Iceland spends far too little on
higher education. See, the problem is
not that the Icelandic university system
is too expensive because it has too many
small units. If that were the case it would
make some sense to eliminate univer-
sities to save money. But according to
figures from the OECD, Iceland spends
less than almost all other developed
countries on higher education, just 1,2%
of GDP while the OECD average is 2%.
Iceland is the only OECD country that
spends less per student in university
than it spends per pupil in elementary
schools. More disturbingly, Iceland is
falling behind other countries when it
comes to young people who graduate
with university degrees: Only 33% of
people 24–34 years old finish college.
This proportion is around or over 40% in
the other Nordic countries.
Who can honestly think we can solve
this by cutting costs, eliminating choices
and providing more standardised mass-
produced BAs in the large universities?
The Case Against ‘The One
Big University Theory Of
Academic Excellence’
rable education elsewhere, can be
admitted to university (unless their
circumstances are deemed ‘special’,
say they have field experience). Most
Icelandic students enter University at
20–24 years of age, and graduate in
four to five years. In 2010 there were
12.699 students seeking a BA degree,
4.352 students seeking a MA degree
and 482 students seeking PhDs at Ice-
landic Universities. In addition, there
were 1.650 students seeking diplomas
or candidatus degrees. The social sci-
ences, business and law are the most
popular subjects.
There are currently seven full uni-
versities in Iceland. The University of
Iceland, the oldest and largest uni-
versity, founded in 1911, is the only
university with a full range of BA and
MA degrees in academic disciplines.
Reykjavík University, a private univer-
sity, founded in 1998 offers degrees in
law, business, computer science, engi-
neering as well as sports science. To-
gether the Universities of Iceland and
Reykjavík, both of which are located
in Reykjavík—at opposite sides of the
downtown bog to be precise—account
for over 80% of all university students
in Iceland.
In addition to these two there are
several smaller universities. The Ice-
landic Academy of the Arts has de-
partments of Design and architecture,
fine arts, music and theatre and offers
various BA degrees as well as MA de-
grees in art education, composition
and theatre. The University of Akurey-
ri, situated in Akureyri, the largest
town and the “capital” of Northern
Iceland offers various BA and MA de-
grees in the humanities and social sci-
ences, health sciences, business and
natural resource sciences.
A second small university located
outside Reykjavik, Bifröst University,
offers BA and MA degrees in social
sciences, law and business. Bifröst
University can trace its roots back
to the Cooperative College, founded
in 1918 by the Federation of Icelan-
dic Cooperatives, and operated as
a grammar school until 1988 when
it was turned into a University. The
school was originally a kind of coop-
erative counterweight to the Com-
merce College, Verzlunarskóli Íslands,
founded in 1905 and operated by the
Chamber of commerce since 1922. In
1988, the same year Bifröst was reor-
ganised as a university, the Commerce
College founded its own University
of Computer Science, which became
Reykjavík University in 1998.
Finally, there are two small agri-
cultural universities, The Agricultural
University of Iceland at Hvanneyri,
Western Iceland and Hólar University
college in Northern Iceland, who both
offer BA and MA degrees in agricul-
ture, tourism and resource manage-
ment.
ANNA ANDERSEN
NATSHA NANDABHIWAT
Are you an 'arty kid' that goes to 'art school? Why don't you draw us some comix or something?
Make yourself useful for a change? DJÓK! But you should still draw us some comix.