Founded in 1495, the University of Aberdeen is the third oldest in Scotland, and fifth in Britain. It has 2,500 staff and 11,000 students from over 90 different countries, and around 70 academic staff with Irish and Scottish research interests - believed to be the largest concentration of such expertise of any university in Europe.

The Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, headed by the leading Scottish historian Tom Devine, was established in 1998, and is the first of its kind in the world for graduate study and research on the history, literature, language and culture of Ireland and Scotland.

The Institute has an advisory board of eminent figures including the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney; distinguished Irish historian Roy Foster; Christoper Smout, Historiographer Royal in Scotland; Harvard professor of literature, Helen Vendler; Irish critic and prize-winning novelist, Seamus Deane; outstanding Irish scholars Cathal O' hAinle and Seamas O Cathain; and the celebrated Scottish writer, Edwin Morgan.

Aberdeen is the first university to offer a master's degree (M Litt) programme in Irish and Scottish studies. Graduate students can focus on either Scottish or Irish studies or both.

Aberdeen enjoys links with University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Trinity College, Dublin, and Queen's University, Belfast, through the Irish-Scottish Academic Initiative, established to deepen the cultural and scholarly links between the two countries and supported by the Irish and British governments.

The Institute has a diverse programme of public events on Irish and Scottish themes from lunchtime seminars to debates, lectures and conferences. Many events take place in Humanity Manse, the home of the Institute, an elegant 18th century townhouse in the heart of old Aberdeen.

W Leonard Forman is publicity officer at University of Aberdeen