Antarctic research and education are extremely difficult and expensive. The remoteness of the region and the harsh conditions limit the ability of most individual universities or agencies to provide access for students. At the same time, we now recognize that understanding the polar regions is critical for understanding and predicting global climate change and its possible impacts. An international collaborative approach maximizes the financial efficiency while providing the broadest, best quality educational opportunities for the students who will become the future researchers, policymakers and caretakers of this invaluable resource.

The IAI facilitates cooperation and collaboration between members in Antarctic multi-disciplinary education by developing and offering multi-disciplinary and multi-institute courses and units of study. Each of these courses and units has a certain number of places allocated for IAI students from other partner universities without additional tuition fees.

The services of the IAI will be especially important over the next decade as results from research done during the International Polar Year (IPY) become available, and new and crucial research priorities identified. These priorities will all certainly be international and multidisciplinary in nature.

Since its establishment in 2006, the IAI has developed and implemented programs and activities in three key areas: courses and units of study, Masters degree programs, and field opportunities for students. IAI partner universities have also held a limited number of student and staff exchanges between universities, and there are plans to expand this part of the program in the future.