Sami University of Applied Sciences

The Sami University of Applied Sciences (SUAS) is a university college based in Kautokeino in the north-eastern Norwegian county of Finnmark. It is the only education institute in the world where almost everything is taught and communicated in the Sami language. Established in 1989, it has 188 students and five PhD students, this autumn mainly from Sami communities in Norway, Sweden and Finland, in addition to 52 faculty, technical and administrative staff. “The idea of setting up the university was to educate teachers in Sami in order to encourage Sami youngsters to appreciate their language and roots, as the Norwegian language was becoming increasingly dominant even in Sami families,” Guttorm explains.