A VISION of University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is due to be unveiled in about three weeks, it has today been announced. The first planning application for student accommodation for the new university is expected to be submitted to Ipswich Borough Council, The Evening Star has been told.

A VISION of University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is due to be unveiled in about three weeks, it has today been announced.

The first planning application for student accommodation for the new university is expected to be submitted to Ipswich Borough Council, The Evening Star has been told.

Council chief executive James Hehir said the application will be a significant step for the UCS project.

He added: "The UCS project is making steady progress and we hope to have some of the student accommodation in place before the university opens.

"We are in detailed discussions with developers to build a block for 150 students on land close to the waterfront."

Mr Hehir said negotiations were too sensitive either to name the developers involved or to give exact details of the site of the proposed building.

He added: "We hope to be receiving a planning application very shortly. This is very good news."

The development would be closely linked to plans to develop the town's Mint Quarter and the Ipswich Waterfront, said Mr Hehir.

He said: "It is another part of the bigger jigsaw that will transform Ipswich. The Waterfront is already one of the most exciting regeneration projects in the UK. Within 12 months it will be changed yet further."

UCS project manager Carol Macaskill said several developers have shown interest in building accommodation for UCS students.

She said: "I have heard of three to four private organisations planning to put forward applications to build student accommodation.

"The involvement of the corporate sector has always been part the of the wider plans for student accommodation in the UCS project.

"We have been approached by a number of organisations which have experience of working with universities elsewhere and are now showing an interest in UCS."

Where should students live when the university is built? What do you think about the UCS project? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

ONE of the largest schemes of its kind in the UK, University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is due to open its doors to students in September 2007.

Costing an estimated £150million over the next ten years UCS was handed a £15 million kick-start in February by the Higher Education Funding Council For England (HEFCE).

Land has already been set aside for the project and UCS, plus a new Suffolk College, will create an 'education quarter' stretching from Rope Walk to the Ipswich Waterfront.

A partnership led by the universities of East Anglia and Essex, the UCS project is supported by Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council. There will also be substantial private sector investment in the scheme.

N UCS is expected to be worth £1 million a week to the Ipswich economy.

N UCS will include the Ipswich campus and a number of linked centres in other Suffolk towns. This county-wide campus will be known as the Suffolk Learning Centres.

N The total cost of the scheme is expected to be £150million over ten years. Phase one is expected to cost £75m.

N In November 2004 Suffolk County Council pledged £13m towards buying land for the project.

N The plans include halls of residence for students and car parking.

Weblinks www.suffolk.ac.uk www.ucs.ac.uk