THE whole county would become a campus under pioneering plans to deliver university-level courses across Herefordshire – through libraries, village halls, workplaces and even churches.

Within weeks, Herefordshire Council’s cabinet is expected to sign off on a bid for the biggest ever overhaul of higher education here.

If successful, this bid would bring a new-style university centre to the county, through which existing universities could offer and co-ordinate courses online, and deliver those courses to where they are needed.

As proposed, the centre is as close as Herefordshire can now get to having a university in its name, something for which the county has been trying since the 1950s.

It’s all made possible under the government’s New University Challenge programme, which makes £150 million available nationally to extend access to degree-level education.

Herefordshire already had its answer ready when University Challenge was announced last year. A special project group made up of academic, business and political interests has been working on expanding higher education in the county since 2007.

Finishing touches to the university centre plan and its hi-tech applications are being put together before the bid goes to cabinet in June.

From there, the bid goes to the government for scrutiny and, if it makes the cut, Whitehall will come back for a full business case to determine the project’s share of University Challenge cash, which a preliminary figure pitches at about £15 million.

Professor Geoffrey Elliott, who is leading the working group, said that higher education was moving away from the idea of creating stand alone universities and towards university centres to co-ordinate and deliver virtual learning.

A strong selling point of the Herefordshire bid was the diversity of courses that could be offered and the way in which they may be delivered, with particular emphasis on the fast-expanding professional development and environmental markets, said Prof Elliott.

“We have a plan that responds to the higher education market as it is now, with one of the first of a new generation of university centres in one of the few counties left that doesn’t have a university,” he said.

The bid was going forward with support from existing further and higher education providers, business, and local and regional government, he said. As pitched, the bid includes:

■ Building the university centre itself – essentially an admin hub and student accommodation – in a central location. The Edgar Street Grid, specifically the site that is now Blackfriars education centre, is favourite, but some other scheme, possibly connected to the development of a new Hereford library, has not been ruled out.

■ Using existing further and higher education sites, like the Folly Lane tri-college campus learning village, to deliver virtual courses.

■ Channelling virtual courses on-line through outreach points ranging from libraries, schools, workplaces and even churches.

The bid is being drawn up with 1,000-plus students in mind. Once up and running, individual universities would administer their own courses through the centre.