England’s first new university in a decade to revitalise Hereford

Plans for the first new university in England in almost half a decade are key to revitalising Hereford’s offer for a new generation, the Chief Executive has said.

Prof Elena Rodrigues-Falcon, President and Chief Executive of New Model in Technology & Engineering (NMiTE) – which aims to become the first new University in England in 40 years – said the new facility will kickstart the local economy.

She said: “The reality right now is Hereford is not retaining students. There is a huge exodus. They (young adults) tend to return when they retire. I think we have a challenge to create the infrastructure and the job opportunities for them to stay, and the University itself is going to be a creator of jobs.
[emaillocker id=”71749″]
The new facility, which is currently in the process of being validated as an academic institution, also aims to shake up how subjects such as engineering are taught in the UK.

Ms Rodriguez-Falcon said: “Academia is stale, NMiTE’s aim is to revolutionise that, particularly in education. As you can imagine, if you are familiar with engineering this subject has been taught and delivered in Higher Education in a very traditional way forever. Whilst the actual subject matter is vocational, the jobs are hands on. We are trying to address that, employers are constantly telling us that new graduates aren’t work ready and they have to be re-trained.”

The new university is the culmination of seven years work by the local community in Hereford which collectively donated over £1m to fund having the project initially assessed. The Government and Local Enterprise Partners have also given NMiTE £23m of funding.

NMiTE expects to begin its first intake of 50 ‘pioneer’ students which will test out the programme from September, with 200 students expected to be inducted for the academic year starting in September 2020. Of the courses expected to be available, Ms Rodriguez-Falcon said the university aims to deliver an integrated engineering degree.

Ms Rodriguez-Falcon added: “We will not train a mechanical engineer, nor a civil engineer but an engineer who can move flexibly between disciplines. In our accelerated programme students will study 46 weeks a year working 9-5, imagine, just like a job, in a space which will belong to them. The whole idea is about project-based learning. By the end of their programme engineering students would have done 19 projects with different companies, 22 weeks of industrial placement and two lots of three-weeks community-based engagement projects. They will be work ready – that’s the plan.”

Ms Rodriguez-Falcon also said that the university also plans to be ‘part of the city’ and integrate learning spaces into both Hereford’s existing fabric and the local market towns. The fledging university has hired architecture practice Architype to submit plans to convert a former council office on Bath Street into on of its first city sites.

She added: “In the process of becoming part of the city, we have some very clear aspirations and dreams. These spaces are authentic to our values and authentic to Hereford.”

Also speaking at the event was Roger Allonby, Head of Economic Development at Herefordshire Council, who said that plans to press ahead with the city’s western bypass are vital to unlocking a swathe of development land for both employment space and housing. The county has ambitious plans to deliver 16,500 new homes by 2031.

Mr Allonby said: “The big thing which will make the difference is the bypass. We have a £185m bid to the housing infrastructure fund (for the project). The congestion in Hereford is a key constraint. The bypass is the most significant thing to improve transport.”

He added: “We are finalising a bid into the Housing Infrastructure Fund to gain money for the bypass over the next few years. We’re keen to refocus our economic vision and create a masterplan to look at what big physical things we want to bring forward over the next 10 years.”

[/emaillocker]