HEREFORDSHIRE is set to become the site of an innovative multiversity, providing sustainable education to students in the county and beyond.

The Bulmer Foundation is proposing the idea of a multiversity in response to a report commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council which suggested that a new organisational form was needed in the county.

The idea is that it would drive sustainable social, economic and environmental regeneration in the county and encourage creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation.

It is also hoped that it would attract a larger proportion of the community into higher learning than any other HE institution in the UK, as well as learners from all over the world.

The multiversity would have a number of sites with its central building as part of the Edgar Street Grid development, which would include eco-housing for students, a public-facing library, information centre and a cafe. It is also planned that all of the multiversity buildings would be designed, managed and constructed in a sustainable way.

Learning programmes would be offered in specialist domains such as the arts, bioenergy, gastronomy, music and farming.

The county has a large number of organic farmers, a myriad distinctive food and drink products, and hosts a variety of food festivals, and it is the Bulmer Foundation's aspiration to link with the International School of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy to develop several specialist masters programmes in the field of gastronomy, which would include internships with local producers.

It is also hoped that the multiversity could become the training base for the UK Care Farm Network, which involves farmers in helping to heal people who are suffering from some form of alienation, disability or disease. The organisation creates opportunities for clients to work with the grain of nature such as growing food, feeding animals or helping to manage estates.

The Hereford Music Studios (HMS) which was established in 2000 by veteran session gutarist Peter Goodall, already has a presence within the Edgar Street grid and could also link up with the multiversity.

The current plan for the multiversity is to identify potential partners who want to support further progress with the proposal and to undertake a feasibility study to establish the viability of the proposal.