£5.3 million strengthens North-East Wales Institute’s position

8 February 2007

The North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI) has been awarded £5.3 million to strengthen its position as Wales’s higher education institution in north-east Wales.

The investment, from HEFCW’s Strategic Development Fund, will be given over three years and will help the Institute along the road to gaining its own degree awarding powers – and to securing the university title in the future.

A significant share of the funding will go towards a new Design Technology Building in order to improve learning resources at NEWI. The building will bring together engineering, design and computer science, revamping both the departments and their curricula in the process.

The remaining funding will be used to boost NEWI’s human resources. This will include a suite of staff development activities and a number of new appointments to build capacity in several subject and operational areas.

Professor Sir Roger Williams, Chairman of HEFCW, said: “In general, we encourage our higher education institutions to look to mergers and collaborations as ways of bolstering their positions as seats of learning, teaching and research. In this particular geographical circumstance, however, we have concluded that a significant investment from the Strategic Development Fund best suits NEWI’s status, identity and mission.”

Professor Michael Scott, Principal and Chief Executive of NEWI welcomed the investment. “This shows the great confidence HEFCW has in the work we are doing here at NEWI. It will enable the Institute to remain at the forefront of the development of design technology across North East Wales building on the joint work of three of NEWI’s vocational schools: the North Wales School of Art and Design; the School of Science and Technology; and the School of Computing and Communications Technology.”