31-08-05

Victorian School Setting a New Standard of Academic Excellence

Thurso's two surviving Victorian schools are handsome buildings, far more attractive than those utilitarian structures that replaced them at Pennyland and Mount Pleasant. It is appropriate that the former schools were put back into use as educational establishments of a different kind: the Miller Institution became the town's library and, more recently, the West Public School in Castle Street was transformed into the Environmental Research Institute (ERI).
It was in 2000, following a £1.6 million restoration and upgrading, that the ERI, part of Thurso's North Highland College - one of the academic partners in the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute - was opened.
Over the past five years the ERI has carried out a wide range of environmental research, working closely with universities and other research institutions and organisations both in the UK and abroad.
Tackling environmental issues that affect Highland industries such as distilling, agriculture and aquaculture forms an important part of it's work. Current key research areas include climate and environmental change; seeking new ways of dealing with solid and liquid waste; environmental sensitivity and risk; and investigating natural products for possible pharmaceutical use.
In association with it's research work the ERI is actively involved in education and training activities which include HNC, HND, degree and postgraduate programmes. it provides, too, high-quality research opportunities for European Union students.
More than 20 people are currently engaged in research at the ERI. Some are experienced researchers whilst others are working towards their doctorates. Since opening, staff have been recruited not only from Caithness and across the UK but from France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland and Japan. A sign of the institute's fast-growing reputation both in the UK and abroad was the response to an advertisement for the appointment of five postgraduate researchers: there were over 400 applicants.
One admirable aspect of the ERI is the series of seminars it runs on environmental issues which the public are free to attend. The seminars are usually timed to start in the late afternoon and last for about an hour.
A week ago the subject was the Munsary peatlands, north of Lybster, now a nature reserve owned and managed by Plantlife.
Tonight's presentation (at 4:30pm) is entitled "All Change in the Arctic" and explores some of the recent environmental changes taking place, traces their origins and their wider implications, and looks at some future scenarios. If you are interested just turn up and you will be warmly greeted with a glass of wine and a nibble before procedings begin.