HEREFORDSHIRE'S planned new university has taken another major step forward.

It has been granted degree-awarding powers, which is a hugely significant milestone for the pioneering project.

The new powers granted by regulator the Office for Students (OfS) mean NMITE can 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.

Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman hailed it as a "massive breakthrough".

He 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.

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"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."

The institution has still not negotiated the final adminstrative hurdle that will allow it to officially call itself a university.

NMITE claims to have a created model of higher education will equip students with the diverse and creative problem-solving skills needed in an ever-changing world.

It aims to contribute to the civic life of Herefordshire and produce graduates to fill highly skilled jobs, some of which will be created in the county.