Hamrahlid College (Icelandic: Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð) or MH is a public gymnasium (Icelandic: menntaskóli), located in Hlíðahverfi, Reykjavík, Iceland. The school was founded in 1966 by the Icelandic Ministry of Education; with the first graduation occurring in 1970. The school's first rector was Guðmundur Arnlaugsson.
The school's objective is to prepare students for rigorous tertiary studies both locally and in an international environment. It offers four Icelandic-taught programmes leading to the Stúdentspróf qualification: languages, natural sciences, social sciences and performance dance; and one English-taught programme leading to the IB Diploma. The newest addition is an "independent programme" which allows slightly more room for mixing the other ones together. The school also offers evening classes for older students and coordinates annual language tests for foreign student who wish to apply to local schools.
Since foundation, the school was meant to be a pioneer project, and has therefore received relative freedom in advancing its education policy. It was the first in the country to adopt a university-style credit system, which was soon replicated by several other schools and eventually became the basis for all government-regulated upper secondary curricula.
Hamrahlid College is one of the most selective upper secondary schools in the country. It prides itself for its services to students with disabilities and students whose mother tongue is not Icelandic, who also enjoy priority in the selection process.
Some famous Icelanders that once attended MH include Björk, Paul Oscar and Jón Gnarr, the current mayor of Reykjavík.
Read more about Hamrahlid College: The School Building, Education, Student Union, The Choir
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“The mode of founding a college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents, and then, following blindly the principles of a division of labor to its extreme,—a principle which should never be followed but with circumspection,—to call in a contractor who makes this a subject of speculation,... and for these oversights successive generations have to pay.”
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