Originally a business school, it also offers degrees in law and social sciences, at both bachelor's and master's level, as well as a remedial university preparatory course.

He had studied at Askov Folk High School in Denmark and Ruskin College in Oxford, and his ideas about education were innovative for the time.

At first, the school offered a two-year residential program in retail management for students aged roughly sixteen to eighteen.

In 1998, a tunnel was opened which reduced the driving time from Reykjavík to Bifröst to around an hour and a half, changes in Icelandic society increased the demand for higher education, and new legislation authorized universities to charge fees.

A draft of these courses in 2020 are: On and around the university are a kindergarten, housing for students and some staff, and recreation facilities (including a fitness room, sauna, hot tubs, solarium, and soccer and basketball fields).