iEarth Centre of Excellence in Education formally opened
Kjersti Olsen Ingerø, leader of the technical department at the Longyearbyen Community Council and former UNIS students formally opened iEarth by clipping the red ribbon held by iEarth educational chairs associate professors Marius Jonassen (left), Lena Håkansson and Maria Jensen. Photo: Eva Therese Jenssen/UNIS.
Top image: Kjersti Olsen Ingerø, leader of the technical department at the Longyearbyen Community Council and former UNIS student, formally opened iEarth by clipping the red ribbon held by iEarth UNIS educational chairs Marius Jonassen (left), Lena Håkansson and Maria Jensen. Photo: Eva Therese Jenssen/UNIS.
This morning the new Centre of Excellence in Education, iEarth, was formally opened in a ceremony at UNIS.
13 October 2020
Press release from UNIS
In December 2019 the Directorate for Internationalization and Quality Development in Higher Education (DIKU) awarded the status Centre of Excellence in Education (SFU) to the Centre for Integrated Geosciences Education (iEarth).
iEarth is a national collaborative project led by the University of Bergen and aims to develop teaching in the geosciences at the University of Oslo, the University of Tromsø, the University of Bergen and the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS).
The centre started up on 1 June 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was only today, 13 October, that a formal opening ceremony took place.
– This is a very big day for me, for UNIS and for geoscience students both nationally and internationally, said UNIS director Jøran Moen in his opening speech.
He pointed out that the goals of iEarth and the UNIS strategic goals are a perfect match.
– When we do the teaching right, we increase the fascination for geosciences among students and thus facilitate solutions for the society, he said.
The same point was stressed by Kjersti Olsen Ingerø, leader of the technical department at the Longyearbyen Community Council, who highlighted the collaboration projects with both UNIS staff and UNIS students, ranging from slope monitoring, avalanche warning systems to drinking water quality. – iEarth will facilitate for interaction of students and potential employers and dissemination of knowledge to the local society – which will help us on the way to a more sustainable society, she said.
iEarth is the second SFU where UNIS is a partner. bioCEED, also headed by the University of Bergen, received the status in 2013 and the UNIS Arctic Biology department is represented in the centre’s board.
Go to the iEarth website for more information.
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