Rules change opens door for Harper Adams university status bid

Shropshire could get its first fully-fledged university after the government announced plans to change the rules for small colleges.

Harper Adams University College, at Edgmond, near Newport, is considering an application to the Privy Council for full university status.

Yesterday, the Government announced that it had decided to reduce the number of students required for a higher education institution to be a university from 4,000 to 1,000.

Dr David Llewellyn, principal of Harper Adams, said: “We welcome the announcement that university colleges such as Harper Adams will be allowed to apply to use the full university title.

“Many of these institutions have a long pedigree and outstanding performance in teaching, providing an excellent student experience, in graduate employability and in specialist areas of research. Harper Adams is no exception.

“The criteria for the award of university title include the need to hold taught degree awarding powers and to have good governance arrangements.

“We have taught degree and research degree awarding powers and strong governance, which means that we consider ourselves to be in a good position for an application for university title.

“We will shortly consult with other institutions about a change to our name and we then expect to apply to the Privy Council to bring about the change to university status.

“We hope that it will enable our institution to go from strength to strength in the important work in which it is engaged.”

Harper Adams is a member of GuildHE, the organisation which represents small, specialist higher education institutions.

Andy Westwood, chief executive of GuildHE, said: “The Government’s reduction in the qualifying threshold for university title represents the correction of a long-held anomaly.”