UHI restructures executive office to provide platform for growth

In line with its new 2030 strategy, which sees the university refocus around five key priority pillars, the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) executive office is restructuring its business to ensure that it is responsive to economic growth opportunities and provides long-term stability to meet the needs of students, staff and stakeholders.

Alongside academic partners, UHI executive office delivers learning, teaching and research across a number of disciplines and within UHI provides strategy, governance, academic quality and standards and a range of other functions in support of the wider UHI partnership.

The restructure of the executive office will reduce costs by £4m which will be a mixture of staff and non-staff savings including the sale of the office located in Ness Walk, Inverness. We value our employees greatly, and we continue to do all that we reasonably can to ensure the job security of our existing staff. However, the proposed restructure will sadly result some posts being placed at risk of redundancy, with every effort being made to redeploy staff where possible.

Vicki Nairn, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor, explained: “Our 2030 strategy sets out key opportunities for future growth in areas including student experience, business engagement and research, which we are committed to delivering. Like many organisations, we are responding to the challenges of the current economic climate.

“By taking proactive measures now in reshaping the structure of the executive office we will ensure that we are in the very best position to provide a platform for the future growth of UHI, to deliver the best possible experience to our students, staff and communities. This change programme will deliver financial sustainability through a more streamlined, efficient and effective organisation in line with our 2030 strategy.”

During the restructuring process our research outputs and award-winning curriculum remains unaffected. As Scotland’s #1 university for postgraduate student satisfaction and #6 for undergraduate student satisfaction in the 2023 surveys the quality of our learning, teaching and research is our top priority and remains at the heart of our everything we do.