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 NAFC Marine Centre, Scalloway, Shetland |
The UHI Millennium Institute (Institiùd OGE nam Mìle Bliadhna in Gaelic) is a partnership of 15 colleges and research institutions from across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland delivering higher education. The acronym "UHI" stands for "University of the Highlands and Islands". The UHI Millennium Institute is incorporated as a charity and limited company and its headquarters is in Inverness. Since 1 August 2008 UHI has been able to award its own undergraduate degrees, while UHI postgraduate degrees are awarded by the University of Aberdeen and the Open University.
The UHI is divided into three faculties: Arts and Social Sciences; Business and Leisure; and Science. A more practical consideration is that its courses are on offer at 15 locations from Shetland in the north to Argyll and Perthshire in the south. Some courses are offered at multiple sites, others are more localised and may be offered in only one place. Some of the more distinctive courses available at the UHI include aeronautical engineering; nuclear decommissioning; the culture of the Highlands and Islands; Gaelic music; Gaelic language and/or culture; marine science; sustainable forestry; and golf management. Also on offer are many of the more mainstream subjects you would find anywhere else.
The partners in the UHI are: the NAFC Marine Centre, Scalloway; Shetland College, Lerwick; Orkney College, Kirkwall; North Highland College, Thurso; Lews Castle College, Stornoway; Inverness College, Inverness; Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye; Moray College, Elgin; Highland Theological College, Dingwall; Perth College, Perth; Argyll College, Dunoon; Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban; and Lochaber College UHI, Fort William. It can be seen from this list that the UHI extends on the mainland beyond the boundaries of the Highland Council area to include partners in Moray, Perthshire and Argyll.
By some accounts, it is possible to trace the history of the UHI back to a failed attempt to launch a university in Perth in 1425 or another in Shetland in 1581. A more realistic starting point for the story lays in a feasability report published in June 1992. The UHI came into being over the following two years, then slowly grew through the remainder of the 1990s. In April 2001 the Scottish Parliament awarded the UHI Higher Education Institute status, allowing it to provide university level courses. UHI degrees were initially awarded and validated by the Open University Validation Service, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Aberdeen.
