Increase in Registration Fees: Katla Ósk, Student Rights Officer at SHA, writes
Increase in Registration Fees
Katla Ósk, Student Rights Officer at SHA, writes:
Fee Increased
The registration fee at the University of Akureyri has been raised from ISK 75,000 to ISK 100,000.
This means that at the beginning of the academic year you must pay ISK 100,000, but if you begin your studies in the spring semester, the fee is ISK 75,000. Previously, the amounts were ISK 75,000 at the beginning of the academic year and ISK 50,000 for those starting in the spring.
What is a registration fee?
A registration fee is a fee that universities are legally permitted to charge in order to cover the cost of all student services, except teaching.
In 2023, the registration fee at the University of Iceland was ruled unlawful because it was not based on sufficiently reliable calculations and cost assessments[1]. Following that decision, the university submitted a detailed breakdown of the costs the fee is meant to cover, and the fee was subsequently deemed lawful[2].
The fee was last increased in 2014, and naturally universities cannot cover the same cost items today with the same amount as then. At the same time, the purchasing power of young people has been stagnant for 20 years, meaning that this increase comes on top of general price hikes that we all feel significantly[3].
Should higher education not be free?
Article 13 of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iceland is a party, states that education shall enable all individuals to participate actively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic, and religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
To achieve these aims, signatory states recognize that in order to fully realize this right, higher education shall be made equally accessible to all based on capacity, by all appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education[4].
Charging for all student services while declaring teaching itself to be free does not align with this objective, as those seeking university education have no option but to pay the registration fee. University education in Iceland is not free.
Icelandic higher education is underfunded
In the other Nordic countries, public funding for universities is nearly one-third higher than in Iceland. The higher education system is not fully funded by the state, and according to the University of Iceland’s calculations, the registration fee in 2024 would have needed to be ISK 180,049 in order to cover all cost items the fee is intended to fund.
Instead of fully funding universities, the minister chose to authorize them to raise registration fees. It must be clearly emphasized that the law permits universities to charge this fee, but does not require it. Yet due to the long‑term underfunding of the university sector, institutions see no alternative but to reach even deeper into students’ pockets.
Even with the recent increase, the fee still falls short, making further increases highly likely.
Can students afford this?
Certainly, some can afford to pay a higher fee, but for others it reduces access, raises barriers to entering higher education, and places additional burdens on Icelandic students. Already, 30% of Icelandic students report serious or very serious financial difficulties in the latest Eurostudent survey[5]. That survey was conducted before this fee increase.
Compared with other Nordic countries, Icelandic students have the highest financial stress, our universities receive the lowest public funding, and the return on higher education in Iceland has not been this low in 37 years.
What consequences will this prolonged state neglect cause?
The quality of teaching and research will eventually decline, access will diminish, and it will become less and less appealing to study and work within the university academic community. If this continues, we fear that Iceland’s public universities will no longer be competitive with foreign institutions and that the value of our education will be undermined.
Dear government, hiding behind the claim that this is merely an “authorization” to raise fees does not hold when it is the government that has cut university funding so severely that institutions are forced to pass the cost onto students—students who already live with a flawed loan system that pushes 74%[6] of them to work alongside their studies just to afford their education, when full‑time study is already equivalent to full‑time work.
The numbers simply do not add up.
The Student Union of the University of Akureyri urges the government to fully fund the higher education system immediately and thereby safeguard the future of university education in Iceland before the consequences of underfunding become irreversible.
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References
[1] https://www.stjornarradid.is/gogn/urskurdir-og-alit-/stakur-urskurdur/?newsid=d72936f9-74b9-11ee-9bc1-005056bc4727&cname=%C3%81fr%C3%BDjunarnefnd%20%C3%AD%20k%C3%A6rum%C3%A1lum%20h%C3%A1sk%C3%B3lanema&cid=dc04e587-4214-11e7-941a-005056bc530c
[2] https://www.stjornarradid.is/gogn/urskurdir-og-alit-/stakur-urskurdur/?newsid=05595b38-125b-11f1-b89a-005056bcde1f&cname=%C3%81fr%C3%BDjunarnefnd%20%C3%AD%20k%C3%A6rum%C3%A1lum%20h%C3%A1sk%C3%B3lanema&cid=dc04e587-4214-11e7-941a-005056bc530c
[3] https://www.viska.is/um-visku/i-frettir/kaupmattur-ungs-folks-stadid-i-stad-i-tuttugu-ar
[4] https://www.althingi.is/lagas/150b/1979010.2c4.html
[5] https://database.eurostudent.eu/drm/?eust_nr=8&e=financial_difficulties_all5&fg=all_students&country_list=DK%2CFI%2CIS%2CNO%2CSE&Curr=NCU
[6] https://database.eurostudent.eu/drm/?eust_nr=8&e=financial_difficulties_all5&fg=all_students&country_list=DK%2CFI%2CIS%2CNO%2CSE&Curr=NCU