THE New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (Hereford's planned new university) has completed part of the refurbishment its building in the city's Blackfriars Street.

The new layout reflects NMITE’s vision of its future technology and engineering teaching which will be centred around the principle of ‘Learning without Lectures’ using a series of project-based ‘sprints’ in their place.

The space has been configured around learners gaining knowledge from hands-on projects and working as a team rather than through conventional lectures.

Ledbury Reporter:

NMITE took on the site in August 2019 and has had contractors on site since, with a pause during the Covid-19 lockdown.

NMITE president Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon said she was excited to see their plans come to life. “It’s a physical demonstration of our future vision and I think will be motivating for my team and local community alike. We look forward to the day when we can “open our doors” and start delivering our objective of developing work ready engineers.”

Ledbury Reporter:

Herefordshire Council own the freehold of the Blackfriars Street premises and has granted a long lease to the Department for Education. The DfE has subsequently granted a 50 year sub-lease to NMITE.

Development of the site has been led by NMITE Professor, Dave Allan and Learning Resources Lead Technician, Dave Coleman. 

Funding for the development was provided by Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Growth Deal with part of the grant used for the identification, sourcing, procurement, installation and commissioning of in excess of 22,000 devices, machines and specialist equipment.  

Examples of the latter include a Tensile Test Machine, manufactured by Thümler, used to test and understand the properties of engineering materials and Keyence’s Automated Measurement Machine as its non-contact measurement solution is particularly useful when developing soft or flexible products.  

Attention now turns to the second building on the Blackfriars site which will increase capacity to 250 future learners.    

Ledbury Reporter: