The New Model in Technology and Engineering (NMiTE) aims to become the first new ‘greenfield’ university in the UK for 30 years, addressing the growing need for engineering talent in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and cyber-security.
NMiTE says is taking a ‘radical approach’ to training the next generation of engineers, including having a 50:50 gender balance target, 6 to 12 month integrated work placements and recruiting graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. It will also offer accelerated degrees, meaning students can complete their degrees in two years.
The funding, which relies on the project meeting a set of milestones and criteria, will be used to develop the faculty, campus and curriculum, creating a new institution to draw talent to Hereford from the UK and beyond.
Johnson said: “New innovative higher education providers, such as NMiTE, will play an important part in educating the next generation of much-needed engineers, providing the skills and talent that employers need.”
NMiTE will take its first cohort of students in September 2020, with development cohorts in 2018 and 2019. The facility will deliver hands-on project based learning with no lectures, courses created in association with employers and mandatory work placements of 6 to 12 months before graduation. It also looks to support diversity and social mobility and to recruit from non-traditional backgrounds.
Professor Janusz Kozinski, NMiTE’s founding president and chief executive, said: “If Britain is to lead the next industrial revolution, driven by artificial intelligence, driverless cars and 4D printing, we need to educate young people to be pioneers and creators. We need to give them the confidence to think beyond their textbooks, the freedom to be daring, and the tenacity to turn ideas into new products, new companies and even entirely new industries.
“The future of higher education for engineers is arriving very soon, in Hereford.”
