The University Centre in Svalbard is a Norwegian state-owned limited company that provides university-level education in arctic studies. The universities of Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim are represented on its board. The centre is known as UNIS and forms part of the University of the Arctic. It is led by a director appointed by the board for a three-year term. The university is the world’s northernmost higher education institution, in Longyearbyen at 78º N latitude. The courses offered fall into four main science disciplines: Arctic biology, geology, geophysics and technology. The university was established in 1993 in Longyearbyen, a town of about 2000 inhabitants on the western coast of Spitsbergen island. The main idea behind establishing UNIS was that the unique geographic location of the island permits the study of Arctic sciences in situ, right outside the university walls. The university was established with an international spirit – its official language is English, and about half of its 350 students originate from outside Norway (in 2006, foreign students came from 25 countries).