Professor Hannibalsson, is currently the head of the University of Iceland, School of Business.

Prof. Hannibalsson received a B.Sc. in physics and mathematics from the University of Iceland, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the The Ohio State University, USA.

Both local and international higher education institutions have profited from prof. Hannibalsson being their full time teaching staff: e.g. Reykjavik Highschool, University of Iceland, Ohio State University among others. The experience which he gained while holding the position of president of Alafoss ltd (a textile company) has contributed to the content of his hands-on lectures at the School of Business, University of Iceland. For five years he was a manager at the Technical Division of the Federation of Icelandic Industries. Prof. Hannibalsson has been the President of the Technical Institute of Iceland. From 1988 – 1993 he was the president of the Export Council of Iceland.

Dr. Hannibalsson has been a member and chairman of many committees and boards. Just to mention the main ones within the University of Iceland - Chairman of the board of the University Pharmacy, Chairman of the University’s Planning Committee, board member and Chairman of the University Council’s Finance Committee, board member and Chairman of the University’s Research Liaison Office.

At the moment prof. Hannibalsson is the Chairman of the Icelandic Tourism Research Center, board member of the University’s Language Center, the Chairman of the University Center’s Construction committee, as well as the Chairman of the Asian Research Center.

Since 2007 he is the Head of the University of Iceland School of Business.

Prof. Hannibalson’s research interests are: University Management, University Organization, International Business and Productivity Improvement.

Email: ingjald@hi.is

“I sincerely congratulate the University of Latvia on the 90^th anniversary of its foundation. There are many similarities between Latvia and Iceland. In both countries have the national universities played an important role in developing their countries. Without a national university it is hard to see how a country can develop and maintain its independence. This will be even more important in the future when knowledge generation and knowledge dissemination will have more influence than ever before on the competitiveness of nations”

The struggle of a small nation to develop a good university system. What effect will the economic crisis in Iceland have on its development?

From the establishment of the University of Iceland in 1911 until the end of the 20^th century the organization and governance of Icelandic institutions of higher education was democratic and collegial. Representatives of staff and students sat on the university councils and the leaders were elected. For a long time there was only one university in the country but in 1971 the Teacher’s college was transformed into the University of Education and in 2009 Iceland has 7 institutions of higher education, 3 of them “private”.

Initially the main objective of the University of Iceland was to educate civil servants; lawyers, Lutheran ministers, medical doctors and teachers. Later on education of engineers and accountants was added. In the seventies the number of subjects increased drastically and during the nineties master’s programs were introduced. The current goal of the University is to increase the number of Ph.D. candidates and focus more than before on research.