Joint news release issued on behalf of both partners - The UHI Millennium Institute
- The University of Aberdeen
The UHI Millennium Institute and the University of Aberdeen are setting up a joint working group to explore opportunities for collaborative projects.
The new working group will seek to build on the existing ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ signed by the two institutions in September 1998, which agreed the broad aim of fostering a long-term relationship offering mutual benefits. The group will make recommendations to the governing bodies of the two institutions.
The move follows UHI’s success in gaining designation as a higher education institution last December, when First Minister Henry McLeish described the project as, “a superb, trailblazing project, special even in European terms”.
The UHI Millennium Institute, funded in part by a Lottery Grant from The Millennium Commission, believes the prospect of developing closer links with the University of Aberdeen will further aid its progress towards full university status.
“The University of Aberdeen is our nearest academic neighbour and already enjoys strong ties with the schools, colleges and students of the Highlands and Islands,” said UHI chief executive, Professor Alistair MacFarlane.
“Now that UHI has achieved designation as a higher education institution, the time is right to explore opportunities for working together in greater depth than has been possible until now.
“Potentially, both partners stand to gain from developing closer links which will not in any way compromise our independence as separate and distinctive institutions.
“I believe that effective relationships with the University of Aberdeen will help greatly to increase the momentum which is already gathering force behind UHI’s pursuit of university status.
“I am very much looking forward to identifying opportunities which will strengthen UHI through the new working group.”
University of Aberdeen Principal C Duncan Rice said: “I am very enthusiastic about the potential benefit of this scheme to ourselves, the UHI and the whole of the North of Scotland. We already have excellent relationships with the UHI and its partners and look forward to strengthening and deepening them.
“The UHI Millennium Institute is a crucial innovation in linking together the whole of post-school education in the context of a widely distributed population enjoying renewed economic progress.
“This joint initiative will afford the University of Aberdeen the chance to enhance our own development and outreach in teaching, as well as offer opportunities to work together in research and training projects that neither of us could do alone. These projects will greatly benefit both the economy and the people of the North of Scotland.”
For further information, contact:
Alison Ramsay University of Aberdeen Press Office on (01224) 273778
Allan Bransbury (UHI) on (01463) 279203
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.