For decades, there was only one university in Iceland, located in the capital city Reykjavik. That changed in 1987, with the establishment of the University of Akureyri.

University of Akureyri has been vital to the economic growth of the region and a key player in developing knowledge in rural places in Iceland. In the last two decades the University of Akureyri has developed and implemented teaching methods to be able to offer blended learning and distance learning study programs. Due to this development, it is now possible for students all over the country, and even for students located from outside of the country, to get higher education. Students use technology to access their studies, lectures, classes, and communicate with their classmates and teachers and so on.

A qualitative research was done among several former students at the University of Akureyri that live in rural places in Iceland. The purpose of the research was to study the effect of the development of knowledge and edification in the rural parts of Iceland. In this presentation the key findings of this research will be introduced and the role of the University of Akureyri in developing knowledge in rural places in Iceland discussed.

Hafdís Björg Hjálmarsdóttir

Hafdís Björg Hjálmarsdóttir was educated in Hanover Germany and graduated with master´s degree from Leibniz University Hannover. After that she worked several years at TUI GROUP which is a British-German leisure, travel and tourism company, headquartered in Hanover Germany. She worked in the department of controlling, In 2000 she moved back to Iceland and since 2001 she has been working at the Akureyri University as an Assistant Professor. The main teaching is in marketing and the supervising final thesis.

Experience, research, books or else

The main focus of research is education science, marketing, tourism and CSR. Hafdís has been active in various international networks. At the moment Hafdís is a member of two networks; E-CBA´s and Vaken. E-CBA is a network between University of Akureyri and TTK in Estonia, were the aim is to build electronic cases to be used for teaching and building a bridge between the books and relive dilemmas many companies face. Vaken is a network with members in all the Baltic countries, Danmark, Finland and Iceland. The aim is to develop teaching methods to teach soft skills in universities.

Vera Kristin Kristjánsdóttir

Vera Kristin Kristjánsdóttir has been teaching in the faculty of Business administration in University of Akureyri for the last 15 years. I teach marketing, quality management, statistics and have also taught some mathematic courses. I studied business administration in Reykjavík University and along my studies I was an assistant teacher in math and statistics. I completed a Master in marketing from EADA in Barcelona and after that finished educational studies from the University of Akureyri.

My research topics are marketing, teaching methods, tourism and more. I´ve been active in various international networks. At the moment I am a member of two networks; E-CBA´s and Vaken. E-CBA is a network between University of Akureyri and TTK in Estonia, were the aim is to build electronic cases to be used for teaching and building a bridge between the books and relive dilemmas many companies face. Vaken is a network with members in all the Baltic countries, Danmark, Finland and Iceland. The aim is to develop teaching methods to teach soft skills in universities.