Cornwall's first university hopes to plug brain drain

Cornwall, with its sandy coves and wave-lashed beaches, has long exerted a magnetic effect on young surfers, artists or those simply seeking a more laid back life on the coast.

From 2004, their numbers are likely to be swelled as 4,000 students arrive at Britain's first new university for two decades. The main campus building, costing £40m, may itself become a big attraction. It will incorporate a bold and innovative grassed roof as part of its striking design.

However, before school leavers start tearing up their application forms for Oxford and Cambridge and the like, it should be stressed that the main aim of the university is to provide a higher education opportunity for Cornish people themselves who, until now, have been deprived of the chance to study in their own county.

Cornwall is one of only four counties in the UK that do not boast a higher education institution or offer teaching courses and research in a wide range of subjects.

About 90 per cent of young people from the county (2,500 students a year) who take up higher education leave Cornwall, most of them never to return. A low proportion of the county's workforce has vocational, professional or academic qualifications.

The University of Cornwall, which will cost a total of £96m, is the result of a collaboration between Falmouth College of Arts, the University of Exeter, the Open University, the College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, and Cornwall, Truro and Penwith colleges.

It is expected to create 1,000 new jobs in addition to the 4,000 new student places and economists expect it to contribute £32m a year to the Cornish economy by 2010. In the jargon of educationalists, it will "promote the development of Cornwall's knowledge economy, which is seen as crucial to achieving sustainable economic development in the county". In other words, Cornwall's brightest youngsters will stay in the county and use their skills to its benefit.

This week saw the unveiling of design proposals for the new campus building, which will be located on a hillside and slope down towards the sea.

Running downhill from west to east, the western roof will be directly level with the ground, rising to a height of four storeys in the east as the land starts to fall away.

The defining feature will be the roof, arranged as a series of fully accessible landscaped terraces stepped down the side of the hill and planted with local species, along with grasses and shrubs.

Jonathan Adams, project manager at the Percy Thomas partnership, the architects who designed the new campus building, said: "It is designed to be a varied and engaging place to teach, to study or to visit and marks a radical departure in the design of university campuses."

Work is expected to begin in July with the first buildings completed by September next year and the remainder by the following year.

The university will be constructed in two phases. The "hub" where most of the students will live will be at the Tremough campus but there will be several satellite "rims" at other institutions where students can study.

The plans include an element of "lifelong learning" for adults who want to retrain and are seen as vital to helping the Government's reach its target of getting 50 per cent of young people into higher education by the end of the decade.