College 'super campus' on track

New campus Glasgow could provide for 50,000 students and 2,000 staff

Plans for a £300m college "super campus" in Glasgow are still on track despite the credit crunch, according to an education funding body.

The Scottish Funding Council said that the project was "all systems go" even in the face of an economic downturn.

The proposed "New Campus Glasgow" , involves Central, Stow, Metropolitan, and Glasgow Nautical Colleges.

It would be the UK's biggest further education building project and provide for 50,000 students and 2,000 staff.

Mark Batho, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, said the massive project was still on track, despite recent economic difficulties.

"Our planning is based upon a number of assumptions, the most critical of which are that costs are kept tightly under control as the planning proceeds and that current levels of capital spending for colleges are carried forward into the next spending review.

"As long as those assumptions are met, it's all systems go - it's budgeted for and planned for."

The new campus, which will be built at two sites in Cathedral Street and Thistle Street, will go out to tender this month.

A team of architects is expected to be appointed by next spring, with work scheduled to begin in 2011 and be completed in 2016.

It is likely that on completion, the colleges involved in the project would merge to form Scotland's largest further education establishment.