A unilingual minority language college in a multilingual university: Sabhal mor ostaig

This article describes Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (SMO), a college which is part of one of Europe's newest universities, The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and which operates solely through the medium of a threatened minority language, Scottish Gaelic. The article discusses the way in which tertiary educational institutions can contribute to minority language maintenance and revitalisation. It then considers the contribution which SMO is in fact making to the maintenance and revitalisation of Scottish Gaelic. This includes the production of new speakers, support of minority language media, the promotion of relevant research, and support for corpus planning. The article concludes with some of the challenges the higher education environment poses to a minority language institution such as SMO.