Education in Iceland: school stages, the studentsprof and university entry
A guide to the Icelandic school system, the studentsprof, upper secondary programmes and university admission.
In short
Education in Iceland is organised by the state. The Ministry of Education and Children sets the national curriculum guidelines, and the municipalities run preschools and compulsory schools. The main school-leaving qualification is the studentsprof (st煤dentspr贸f), the upper-secondary examination that normally opens the way to university. Schools set their own final examinations, so the studentsprof is a certificate awarded by each upper-secondary school, not one national paper taken by every student on the same day. Icelandic is the language of teaching, and public schools are free to attend.
School stages
- Preschool (leiksk贸li): For children from around one year old until they start compulsory school. It is not compulsory.
- Compulsory school (grunnsk贸li): Ten years, from age 6 to 16. Pupils study Icelandic, mathematics, English, Danish or another Nordic language, natural science, social studies, arts and crafts, and physical education. Many schools run the whole span in one school, and others divide it into lower and upper stages.
- Upper secondary school (framhaldssk贸li): For students from about age 16. Students apply to a school after compulsory school, and places in popular schools can depend on results. Programmes last about three to four years and lead to different qualifications.
- Higher education: Universities offer bachelor's, master's and doctoral programmes, in line with the European system of study cycles.
Upper secondary programmes
Upper secondary schools offer academic, vocational and arts programmes. The academic route leads to the studentsprof, and the vocational route leads to a qualification in a trade, for example in building, hairdressing or cooking. Vocational students often finish with a journeyman's examination (sveinspr贸f) after training in a workplace.
Many schools organise their courses in units (einingar) and terms, so a student collects credits in each subject over several terms. A school may also use a course system in which students choose from a range of subjects and move through them at their own pace. Because of this, two students with the studentsprof can have followed quite different courses.
The studentsprof and grading
The studentsprof is awarded when a student has completed the required units in the core subjects and in chosen specialisations. The core usually includes Icelandic, English, mathematics and a second foreign language, together with natural science and social science options depending on the programme. Each school sets its own final tests, based on the national curriculum guidelines and on the school's own course descriptions.
Grading varies by school, and each school publishes its own scale and pass marks for each course. A student normally needs to pass the courses that make up the required units to receive the certificate. For that reason, advice from the school's own counsellors is the best guide to what is needed in a particular programme.
University admission
The studentsprof is the standard qualification for entering an Icelandic university. The University of Iceland (H谩sk贸li 脥slands), in Reykjav铆k, is the largest. Other institutions include Reykjav铆k University, the University of Akureyri, Bifr枚st University, the Agricultural University of Iceland and the Iceland University of the Arts.
Most programmes admit applicants who hold the studentsprof, sometimes with required courses in subjects related to the programme. Some programmes, such as medicine, select students through an entrance examination, and the dates and subjects are announced by the university. Applicants from other countries need to show that their school qualification is equivalent, and they may need to document their language skills, depending on whether the course is taught in Icelandic or in English.
Studying abroad
Many Icelandic students take part of their education abroad, often in other Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and the United States. Public universities in Iceland have exchange agreements, and the Nordic and European exchange programmes are widely used. Students who plan to apply abroad normally check each university's rules on foreign qualifications.
Practising on GetMyMockTest
These are practice questions we wrote for study. They are not the official exams, and we do not claim they match an exam's current format. Free practice for Iceland:
- Studentspr贸f: mathematics, Icelandic language and literature, and history, with timed tests and flashcards. There is also earlier practice material in Icelandic for mathematics.
- Medical entrance exam: biology, chemistry, physics and quantitative reasoning, with timed tests and flashcards.
- Icelandic general knowledge: history and politics, geography and nature, and science, arts and culture.