Higher education in the Faroe Islands is mainly undertaken by the University of the Faroe Islands, a public research university granting academic degrees. Individual higher education courses are offered by The Business School. Many Faroese pursue higher education out of the islands, mainly in Denmark; in August 2015 a report showed 1,345 Faroese students in Denmark, 904 in the Faroe Islands and 182 in other countries. Studni, the Faroese Student Grant Fund, provides student grants and loans to Faroese students, to study either in the Faroe Islands or abroad.
University of the Faroe Islands
Higher education is offered by the, Tórshavn based, University of the Faroe Islands (Faroese: Fróðskaparsetur Føroya). It was founded in 1965, as Academia Færoensis, by members of the Faroese Academy of Sciences. The university is divided in two faculties: the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education and the Faculty of Natural and Health Sciences, offering several B.Sc. degrees, M.Sc. degrees and Ph.D.s. It is publicly funded and in 2010 it received approximately 68 million DKK. Admission requirements include taking the upper secondary school leaving examination. Specific departments could place additional requirements, e.g. in 2015 the Software Engineering department required a grade of 6/13 in mathematics.
Higher education from the Business School
It is possible to take individual higher education courses in Commerce from the Business School in Kambsdalur and in Tórshavn. The alumni can work at the same time and take one course each semester. After three years they will have achieved 60 ECTS which is the same as the first part of the HD education. They can also take the second part of the HD education from the Business College, and they can also combine it with courses from the Aarhus University via distant education. If they wish to study further for at MBA they must take it from a university in Denmark, i.e. the Aarhus University.
Research
Research in the Faroe Islands is administered by the Faroese Research Council (Faroese: Granskingarráðið). Each year the Parliament of the Faroe Islands allocates money to the Faroese Research Foundation, and it is the Faroese Research Council that decides its recipients. From 2002 to 2012 the Research Foundation had received over 70 million DKK. Research is conducted by several governmental institutions (i.e. museums, laboratories, hospitals, marine institutes) and the University of the Faroe Islands.