The University of the Faroe Islands is a state-run university located in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. It consists of two faculties: the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education and the Faculty of Natural and Health Sciences. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D.'s in both faculties. The student body is small, having almost 600 students. The university organizes an annual dissertation competition open to all students. The educational language of the university is Faroese, making it the only university in the world to conduct classes officially in that language. The university works closely with the University of Copenhagen and the University of Iceland for research projects and is a member of UArctic.HistoryThe University of the Faroe Islands was founded in 1965 by members of the Faroese Scientific Society, founded in 1952. Among their activities, the Society published a scientific periodical and carried out comprehensive work on the compilation of Faroese vocabulary.The university began with one professor, Christian Matras, and a registrar, Maud Heinesen. In its first years the school offered one-year courses in natural history and Faroese for teachers. In addition to the yearly courses, the university arranged for a collection committee with the task of preserving all Faroese folk culture. Today this material is in the archives of the Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature. A further committee was appointed in 1972 to collect Faroese hymns and spiritual ballads.