YOUR VIEWS: University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) has plenty to offer aspiring students – and a thank you
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A Courier columnist's missive sparked a lot of reaction while one reader wanted to say thank you for help in a crisis.
UHI has plenty to offer aspiring students
I refer to Charles Bannerman’s column in the Inverness Courier on Friday, April 7. Whilst I do not intend to comment on Mr Bannerman’s article, the interest and support it has provoked for UHI has provided a useful opportunity to update your readers on UHI and its recent successes.
UHI offers both college and university education, providing access from entry level courses right through to PhD. We are an academic partnership of nine colleges and three specialist institutions who provide teaching, learning and research in the Highlands and Islands, Moray and Perthshire. We employ over 3000 staff across this area and in 2019 contributed £560 millon to these regional economies.
Our mandate is to have a transformational impact on the prospects of our operating area, its economy, its people, and its communities.
UHI provides inclusive and accessible education to students of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
We are connected to the needs of our communities and our diversity and flexibility empowers us to deliver more for our 36,000 students.
Last year, we were rated fourth in Scotland for undergraduate student satisfaction in the national student survey and first in Scotland and fourth in the UK for postgraduate student satisfaction. We also scored over 93 per cent for college student satisfaction – higher than the national average.
Nearly three quarters of UHI research was classified as “world leading” or “internationally excellent” in an expert review undertaken to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions in 2021 and we continue to build on these strengths.
UHI works closely with business and industry, investing in training, apprenticeships and developing the future workforce across many different sectors including innovative, modern and non-traditional programmes which directly contribute to the success of our operating area. UHI was recognised by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry in 2022 as having made an outstanding contribution to the economy of the Highlands and Islands through education and research.
Like all other universities and colleges across the UK, our qualifications are independently and externally verified to rigorous academic standards.
All the awards our students achieve are incredibly valuable and we are proud to celebrate their achievements with them and their families.
These qualifications allow our students to make meaningful and valued contributions to their communities and wider society.
We would encourage any of your readers who want to know more about UHI to visit any of our community-based campuses or join us at an open day where they will receive a very warm welcome.
Vicki Nairn
Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor
UHI
“UHI provides a unique learning environment which caters to the diversity of the Highlands and opens up higher level qualifications to specialist subjects, many of which happen to be practical. Although degree titles have been hand plucked out of the prospectus (a starting point, but hardly the most thorough way to evaluate a university) to portray the university as disreputable and undermine the other traditionally academic courses, there is a lot to be said for more ‘obscure’ degree options. After all, with the currently mounting environmental, economic and demographic issues linked to tourism in the Highlands and Islands, providing opportunities for university level education in a subject such as marine and coastal tourism is surely beneficial and justified. Apparently the criticism of UHI then lies in its lack of conformity to traditional perceptions of academia, which to an elitist undermines the value of the education. However, with all assessment and courses approved by exam boards, it is unclear what ‘vital academic credibility’ is needed. Education is a positive thing, and how anyone could criticise an institution for making university education more accessible and providing flexible options is beyond me. Perhaps this is just another piece of sensationalist journalism that I’m only facilitating by responding to, however, as a student at the University of Glasgow, living with a student of UHI, I wanted to inform you that our educations have been greatly enhanced by our individual experiences at our respected universities. Each has been suited to our own learning styles and for what we each hope to gain from higher education and potential working environments, and they don’t need to be equated to be valuable experiences (or worthwhile to the taxpayer!).” – Mirren Loughery, Skelmorlie
“I thought we had left this snobbery way behind us. I recall in the bad old days when few working class kids attended university and instead were on the manual side, further education colleges for the majority and, for the so called elite, The City and Guilds. We could see and hear the blowhards rubbish those who were in further education. As I said, I thought that was long gone. All higher education providers have a part to play and we should shut down the knockers. We can find good and bad in universities just as we can in further education colleges our students will attend where they feel most welcomed and where they know they will get a course to suit their needs.” – Angus O’Henley, Paisley
Thanks to those who rushed to help reader
I believe that people are inherently kind and helpful and this was proved to be true on April 6 when I tripped on a traffic bump outside Boots at the retail park and fell face first on the road.
Within seconds I was surrounded by about
eight people – two men picked me up, a lady went to get a chair for me, another lady offered wipes to clean my face which was pouring with blood and a man offered to drive me to hospital.
A first aider from Boots called for an ambulance and I was whisked off to Raigmore where I had wonderful treatment including a head and neck scan.
Thankfully everything was fine and I had not broken anything but my face looks worthy of a horror movie.
I do not know the names of any of these people to thank them so I hope they read this newspaper.
A Cameron
Laggan Road
Inverness
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