a college and more than a university. they are different. They are part of a new breed of tertiary institutions, offering flexible and supported learning from access level to PhD.
UHI has a combined income of £135 million, with almost 3,100 members of staff, and a student population of more than 38,600 across further and higher education courses. As a large and dispersed organisation, they have a significant economic footprint in the region.
In 2019, UHI generated £560m gross value added (GVA) and supported 6,200 jobs throughout the economy in the Highlands and Islands, Moray and Perthshire. Across Scotland, the UHI partnership supports £653m GVA and 7,200 jobs.
The 12,360 people who graduated from UHI in 2019 will generate an estimated lifetime earnings premium of £324m GVA in the economy of the Highlands and Islands, Moray and Perthshire.
They have a pretty large physical presence in the region and they are considered to be a major employer paying staff, spending money on goods, services and capital projects, as well as attracting students and visitors into the area. This activity concludes that they contribute £560m to the Highlands and Islands, Moray and Perthshire economies every year, and support 6,200 jobs.
Whilst all of this is amazing their role is much more than that. The responsibility for as a regional strategic body is to lead the discussion with community and government, something that has been described as “the new social contract”.
UHI is embedded in the communities they serve, respect, value and want to see them grow and be sustainable. It is incumbent on they to do all that they can to help them flourish, as each has a natural resource.
Universities and colleges have existed for hundreds of years in various forms and iterations. They are places to make sense of the world and to shape it.
As such, it would be a mistake to see universities as static and unchanging. Indeed, history reflects that during major economic upheaval, universities have remade and reformed themselves, often responding to current circumstance.
UHI is different because they teach across a broad qualification framework, from apprenticeships to PHDs, students go to them and enroll for a purpose. There are institutions that are designed for people to come to them, but they are the opposite and that is their strength. the students should feel there is something relevant in their local communities.
UHI has always been an organisation that has embraced evolution and has a “can do” attitude. They celebrate the fact that they are different, and see their DNA as being part of their region, which covers Highlands and Islands as well as Moray and Perthshire.
The connection to the communities and the notion that nobody should have to leave the area to get an education or a job, or succeed in life, underpins everything that they do.
