The program "Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies" is an educational program of the University of the Arctic offered to the students from all member-universities. It includes study of the current issues of the Arctic region, the peoples and cultures of the High North, the environment and resources of the North, History and Politics of the Scandinavian countries. The advanced courses of the program are taught at the University of Nordland (Bodø, Norway). Some students from NArFU had an opportunity to take these courses on-campus due to the north2north program.

The delegation from the University of Nordland (Eivind Karlsen and Håkan Sandersen, teachers of BCS program) came to Arkhangelsk to congratulate NArFU students with successful completion of the program. NArFU’ Vice-rector of International Cooperation / UArctic Research Office Lead Marina Kalinina, Honorary Consul of Norway in Arkhangelsk Andrey Shalyov, and Deputy First Vice-Rector of the University Nikolay Dundin took part in diploma award ceremony as well.

“Today's event is very significant for NArFU, because for the first time in the history of our university such a large number of graduates receive BCS diplomas. We started working on the program in 2004, when it was launched in the PSU and every year a small number of students graduated from the BCS program. And now we see that this program gives high-quality results, it is becoming more and more interesting for students”, said Marina Kalinina. She also mentioned that the experience the students had got is unique: now they have a lot of knowledge about the High North and a better understanding of their own country, they learned to analyze and practiced their academic English.

Honorary Consul of Norway in Arkhangelsk Andrey Shalyov underlined the event was very important for the whole country and addressed to the graduates. "One of the features of today's education is that it is not limited in time and has no boundaries”, he said. “You should understand that you need to learn all life long, and this program is a good starting point for your further study. This course produces really competent and intelligent professionals. And I am personally pleased that there is one of my employees among the graduates of the program".

BCS Alumni Association of NArFU was launched at the ceremony. The Association will help the BCS graduates to keep in touch with Northern (Arctic) Federal University, University of Nordland and University of the Arctic and other graduates. Moreover, the Association will support new alumni. It will become a platform which will help to establish new friendship and business relationships. All BCS graduates, including ones from previous years, were invited to join the Association. The graduates also received badges with UArctic, NArFU and BCS logos. These badges will become a symbol of their membership in the association.