AN enhanced learning experience will be on offer to students in a refurbished higher education college.

Last week, Durham City Council granted planning permission to Durham New College, allowing it to redevelop a 23-acre site at Framwellgate Moor.

Work on the redevelopment, which is expected to take two-and-a-half years and cost £35m, will begin on Monday, February 24.

The project is being completed in stages, to allow courses to continue unhindered, but the site should be completed in2005.

The site will be home to all the college's 2,500 full-time students and a further 5,000 on part-time courses. It is hoped the facilities will also be used at weekends and at other times.

The revamped college will take in all the existing higher education and residential courses run at its campus at Nevilles Cross, which is being sold for a mixed residential and office development.

Proceeds from the sale will partly fund the development at Framwellgate Moor, along with grant assistance from the Learning and Skills Council and other funds the college is able to generate.

Outline planning permission has also been granted for a residential block, near the Sacriston Road entrance at Framwellgate Moor. It will house up to 150 first year students on the college's teaching courses.

The Nevilles Cross site will be gradually closed during the next 18-months.

It is intended that by the start of the academic year 2004-2005 all the college's students will be based at Framwellgate Moor.

Principal John Widdowson said the development would make New College among the most attractive options for future students across the region.

He said: "It will be the most modern college campus development in the North, indeed in the whole country, one of only a handful of this size and nature in England in the next few years.

"What we are trying to do is provide the best facilities for the students. It's not just about competition, it's providing the accommodation that staff and students deserve."

Work will begin on creating a technology centre, before the main teaching building is developed.

Also planned for the site are a higher education block and a sports hall, with parking for up to 900 cars.