University of Iceland

The University of Iceland, in Icelandic Háskóli Íslands, is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. The Alþingi founded it on 17 June 1911 by uniting three older post-secondary institutions, Prestaskólinn, Læknaskólinn and Lagaskólinn, which taught theology, medicine and law, and it also opened with a faculty of humanities. Forty-five students enrolled in its first year, and its first rector was Björn M. Ólsen. It has grown from a small civil servants' school into a comprehensive university that teaches about 14,000 students in twenty-five faculties, covering the social sciences, humanities, law, medicine, natural sciences, engineering and teacher education. Its campus is concentrated around Suðurgata in central Reykjavík, with the main building designed by the Icelandic state architect Guðjón Samúelsson, and a university lottery begun in 1934 remains a major source of funding for new buildings. In 2008 the university was divided into five schools, and the Iceland University of Education was merged into it to become its School of Education.