Local MP Jesse Norman has warmly welcomed news today that the government's Office for Students (OfS) has granted new degree awarding powers to NMITE, Herefordshire's pioneering new university project.

The new powers will allow NMITE to award its own accelerated Bachelors and Masters degrees in Integrated Engineering, as well as new non-accelerated degrees, foundation courses and a pioneering new BSc in the Sustainable Built Environment from September of this year.

Commenting, Jesse said:

"This is a milestone in our county's history. Thanks to NMITE, for the first time in more than 1,000 years, students coming here from near and far will be able to graduate with a Herefordshire university degree. 

"But this is also a milestone for NMITE itself. It shows the amazing progress which it has made since it opened its doors to degree students just two years ago. And it underlines the quality of its education and the confidence which the Office for Students as regulator has in it.

"Slowly but surely, we are building a new model of economic regeneration and development, a model of higher skills, better jobs and greater prosperity. This is one crucial further stage in that process."