Hello again folks, in this instalment I am going to talk a little about the university and how it came to be set up along with living in the polar night.

The University institute in Svalbard (UNIS) is the worlds northernmost higher education establishment, the second northernmost higher education establishment is the university of TromsØ. To give you an idea of how north it is compared to TromsØ, you can fit the entirety of the UK (from Lands end to John ‘O’ Groats) between UNIS and TromsØ and still have a few miles to spare. UNIS was set up in 1993 with help form the Norwegian government and the four main Norwegian universities. Although UNIS is not a university in its own right as it does not award degrees it provides courses in Bachelors and Masters level, along with PhD positions all courses are compatible with all the other Norwegian universities. It started with just 13 students now it has expanded to taking on 350 students every year of which about half are foreign. UNIS only provides for students on Science based courses.

It has now been more than two months since the sun dipped below the horizon and for the last 6 weeks it has been dark around the clock. This as you might imagine causes ones body clock some problems. In my case I seem to want to be awake for around 20 hours and sleep for around 9. Then throw into this mix if you will, some exams and then the inevitable post exam party and ones body clock gives up the ghost and goes on holiday! I am writing this article at 3am having had what I believe to be lunch…

Today all the other students left to return to there home countries, leaving the 6 students that are remaining here for Christmas. A large portion of the town of Longyearbyen also leaves to return to their families back on the mainland. In the next few weeks it’s going to get pretty quiet.

As for the temperature, it has been unusually warm with the mercury rising above freezing which means things are melting. The rivers started to flow once again causing us to cease skiing and ice caving (our main recreational pass times at the moment). So we went to the rifle range instead and practiced shooting in the dark. To this end before we went to the range, I fitted a torch to the end of my rifle. In order to shoot at an attacking polar bear in the polar night it helps if you can see it!

I am also pleased to announce that I have been accepted into the second term so I will now be staying on Svalbard until June. In the coming months with the return of the light I will be looking forward some pretty amazing experiences, starting with the 6 day winter survival course.

Until next time, I wish you all a merry Christmas from the Arctic,

Alex