UNIVERSITY bosses have claimed £1bn could be pumped into the North Yorkshire economy over the next decade after announcing plans to set up a campus at a seaside resort.

Coventry University is to create a campus at Scarborough, more than 200 miles from its base, as part of a £45m scheme including a University Technical College, a sports village with centre of excellence facilities for football and swimming and student accommodation village.

The University of Hull announced last year it would cease to offer degrees at its Scarborough campus in 2017 and would seek another educational institution to take over the site.

The Coventry University scheme is being developed through a partnership with Scarborough Borough Council and local businesses and is aimed at addressing the employment and skill needs of the local community, as well as attracting more than 5,000 students from all over the country and overseas.

The campus, led by Professor Craig Gaskell, will directly create more than 100 new jobs in its initial phase with hundreds more through its impact on the local economy.

Enrolment to some courses will begin in September, with the full range of programmes, to include law and policing, business, management and leadership, accounting and finance, science and engineering, health and social care, available when the new campus building opens the following year.

Scarborough and Whitby MP Robert Goodwill said: "This really is a game changer for the local area. "Although Scarborough is already well known for bucking the trend and leading the way in regenerating coastal communities, this really is big news for the economy both locally and regionally in providing North Yorkshire with its own university."