UHI status upgrade leads to identity work

Inverness-based UHI Millennium Institute, the higher education institution for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, is set to develop a fresh brand identity when it becomes the University for the Highlands and Islands.

Last month, UHI issued a tender for a design consultancy to develop a new brand and visual identity, as it moves towards full university status and changes its name.

Currently, the organisation is unable to use the word university in its title because the institute does not carry the full status.

According to a UHI spokeswoman, there has been a huge response to the tender, which is now closed, with 30 proposals from across the UK. ‘We would anticipate appointing a supplier by the beginning of June’.

The current logo features the strapline ‘Creating the university of the Highlands and Islands’, below a red ‘U’-shape and the title ‘UHI Millennium Institute’.

UHI offers vocational courses, such as higher national certificates and diplomas, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and research opportunities throughout the Highlands and Islands.

This is achieved through a partnership of colleges and research institutions along with a network of outreach learning centres.