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Increasing access
To increase the proportion of people gaining higher level skills in the East of England it is essential to make it easier for people to enter higher education.
With rising costs and university fees, many young people are now remaining at home while studying. Creating more opportunities for young people to study locally will therefore enable more of them to enter higher education.
It is also important to encourage more adults to develop higher level skills, since more than 70 per cent of our 2020 workforce are already in the workforce now. Local opportunities for higher education enable adults to study part time around family or work commitments.
EEDA has invested in the creation of new higher education (HE) centres at Southend and Ipswich and is currently developing investment plans for Peterborough, Harlow and Thurrock.
The Southend Campus
The Southend Campus for the University of Essex was the first ‘pilot’ new approach higher education site in the region. The take-up rates of both further and higher education in Southend were poor, and although business start-up rates were higher than average, the failure rate at three years was even higher.
The new campus was built on the site of the derelict Odeon Theatre, purchased by EEDA, on the High Street. It has now been operating for a full academic year, offering courses in entrepreneurship and business, health and human sciences, and theatre skills. Since 2004 when the campus started in temporary accommodation, student numbers have risen from 783 to 1,384. In addition, over 400 Southend companies have received business support.
The High Street has also been regenerated as a direct result of the Southend Campus, with over £40m invested in the high street by private retail since the development started.
University Campus Suffolk
The University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is the largest of EEDA’s strategic developments, and the first dedicated HE site in the county since the 15th century. A main campus has been built in Ipswich, alongside Suffolk New College, with a network of higher education hubs being developed within further education colleges across Suffolk.
EEDA engaged with a wide partnership of stakeholders across Suffolk to develop a proposal for capital funding by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This included early purchase by EEDA of key strategic sites, and a £15m investment by EEDA in the cost of building the university campus at Ipswich - the largest single capital investment ever made by EEDA.
UCS will increase the higher education provision available in Suffolk from 2,500 full time places per year to 7,500 by 2012. In its first academic year (2007/8) operating out of further education sites, UCS had 3,830 students undertaking a range of higher education courses. UCS is also developing direct relationships with Suffolk businesses and the public sector, to increase workforce development at higher levels and offer CPD, knowledge transfer and research.
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