New fees threaten Icelandic medieval studies programme

An international master’s programme in medieval studies at the University of Iceland could be discontinued because of new tuition fees for students from outside the European Economic Area, the university’s humanities dean told Morgunblaðið. About 73 per cent of students on the programme come from outside the EEA.

Haraldur Bernharðsson, dean of the university’s School of Humanities and a professor of Icelandic medieval studies, said the programme could become financially unviable if the fees go ahead. Tuition will be nearly 4.7 million Icelandic krónur per student for the 120-credit postgraduate degree.

Parliament has approved a bill ending state funding for the costs of students from outside the EEA, allowing universities to charge them tuition. The University of Iceland and other universities plan to introduce fees. Haraldur said the university had already lost good students because of the charges, and added that the high cost of living in Iceland made studying there expensive even before tuition was added.

He said Norway saw a sharp fall in the number of students from outside the EEA after introducing fees in 2023. If the University of Iceland loses three quarters of its students, Haraldur said, the programme would not have enough students to cover its operating costs under the current model and could be closed.

Haraldur helped establish the programme with professor Torfi Tulinius. He said closure would undo 20 years of work and put at risk the programme’s cultural contribution. About 20 of its graduates now teach at universities outside Iceland, where they continue to teach the Icelandic sagas and Eddic poetry.

Haraldur also criticised what he described as little or no information from the government since the plans were announced about a year ago.