Jón Gnarr urges affordable ways to learn Icelandic

MP Jón Gnarr says people should have more ways to learn Icelandic, preferably “without it being mind-numbingly boring and ridiculously expensive,” he told mbl.is.

He also questioned why some students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) are not exempt from new tuition fees at the University of Iceland. Jón said he had recently spoken with university teachers about the fees and their effects.

From the next academic year, new students on the Icelandic as a second language programme from outside the EEA will have to pay up to 1.45 million Icelandic krónur a year. About 65 to 70 per cent of new students on the programme come from outside the EEA. The course has so far been tuition-free.

The dean of the university’s School of Humanities has said the fees could cost the university good students and potentially lead to some programmes being discontinued. The chair of the Icelandic as a second language programme has said the fees conflict with the state’s language policy.

Jón said most students in culture-related studies come from outside the EEA, adding that it is “enormously valuable for us as a society” to attract talented scholars to specialise in Icelandic and Icelandic cultural studies.