University of Highlands and Islands

         The University of the Highlands and Islands is the United Kingdom’s leading integrated university encompassing both further and higher education.

          Based in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, our distinctive partnership of 13 independent colleges and research institutions is locally based and rooted in communities, but with national and international reach, as part of a regional university structure.

          The University of the Highlands and Islands has a number of undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, most of which can be studied at a range of locations across the area. There are 7,732 students who are on undergraduate and postgraduate courses and 33,000 further education students. There are 70 learning centres spread around the Highlands and Islands, Moray and Perthshire.

History

       In April 2001, it became known as the UHI Millennium Institute, following the Scottish Parliament awarding Higher Education Institute status. By 2004 full-time deans had been appointed its three faculties, with experienced figures having been attracted from other academic bodies.

        University degrees were authenticated by the Open University Validation Service, the University of Strathclyde and theUniversity of Aberdeen until 2008 when the UHI was awarded taught degree awarding powers (tDAP) by the Privy Council under recommendation from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA); Higher National Certificate and Higher National Diploma courses are awarded by the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

          University status was awarded by the Privy Council in February 2011, and UHI became the University of the Highlands and Islands. While the University of the Highlands and Islands is Scotland's newest university, many of its 13 colleges and research institutions have longer histories, the earliest having been founded in the 19th Century. The UHI network has had a unique structure and the way that it has evolved as a multi-campus institution has been constrained by a legislative framework that deals with further and higher education separately.