A short history of Bifröst

Bifröst is a direct descendant of the Cooperative School, which was founded in Reykjavík in 1918 and began operations in December of that year. In August 1918, the board of SÍS, the Federation of Icelandic Cooperative Societies, resolved to establish a school for members of the movement. Jónas Jónsson from Hrifla was chosen as the first headmaster. Jónas defined the school's mission as the training of leaders, and used Ruskin College at Oxford (where Jónas had himself studied) as a model.

In summer 1955 the school was moved to Bifröst, in the valley of Norðurárdalur, in the Borgarfjörður area of western Iceland, and it has been there ever since. The move was a turning point in the history of the school. Guðmundur Sveinsson took over the rector's chair, and Jónas, by then seventy years old, retired. The school was reshaped and completely reorganized as a boarding school, and as the faculty and student numbers grew, the university village of Bifröst slowly took shape.

The university occupies land which previously belonged to a farm called Hreðavatn. Sigurlaug Daníelsdóttir and Kristján Gestsson had lived at Hreðavatn from 1913 to 1949, when Kristján died in an accident. Þórður, one of their six sons, had taken over the farm at the time when the school moved from Reykjavík. Initially, the Federation of Icelandic Cooperative Societies leased the land from the family. On 1 December 1985, Sigurlaug and Kristján's children generously donated the land at Bifröst to the school in memory of their parents. In 1987, a memorial plaque honoring Sigurlaug and Kristján was set up on a lava pillar by the driveway to the old school building. The plaque is in the form of a birch leaf and reads: "In memory of Sigurðalug Daníelsdóttir and Kristján Gestsson from Hreðavatn. With thanks from the members of the Icelandic cooperative movement for the land at Bifröst on which the Cooperative School stands."

The Cooperative School changed its name to the Cooperative University in 1988, to Bifröst School of Business in 2000, and to Bifröst University in 2006. These many changes reflect the tremendous growth and development of the Icelandic higher educational system over the last few decades. Up until 1990, the school was a division of the Federation of Icelandic Cooperative Societies, was owned by the Federation, and served largely as a training college for Federation employees. Since the dissolution of the Federation, Bifröst has been an independent institution which attracts students from all sectors of Icelandic society. Originally, Bifröst offered a secondary-level program of study which lasted only a few months. Today, Bifröst's strongest enrollments are for its three-year bachelor's degrees, and since 2003, Bifröst offers master's degree programs as well.

The number of students studying at Bifröst has grown quickly in recent years, from 120 students in 1998 to approximately 1200 at the beginning of 2008. Some are distance-learning students, but many students and faculty live on or near campus. Shops, the cafe, sports facilities, laundry and banking facilities, and a kindergarten are all on campus, and the elementary school at Varmaland is a short bus ride away. The opening of the Hvalfjarðargöng tunnel in 1998 brought Bifröst within an hour and a half's driving distance of Reykjavík and had a major impact on life in the entire Borgarfjörður region. In turn, Bifröst has had a strong influence, both direct and indirect, on Borgarfjörður.

Business education and social affairs was the school's focus from the beginning, and Bifröst has always been progressive and innovative – sometimes, even controversial – in its educational methods. In recent years, Bifröst has continued to be an "early adopter" among Icelandic universities by reducing class sizes, focusing on practical assignments rather than exams, and increasing the use of computers and online communication in teaching.

Today Bifröst University is an institution of considerable diversity, which offers its students quality training in business, law, and the social sciences, and prepares them for positions of responsibility and leadership both in Iceland and abroad.