Expansion plans for Kingston Maurward College submitted

It is the first time councillors and the public will be able to see the proposals in full.

The university hub and rural business application is part of the college's plan to diversify on the campus – a process which had already included the creation of the Dorset Studio School and a £3.3m animal sciences building.

Proposals for new £4.5m building, which will go alongside the Agri-Tech building, close to Stinsford Farmhouse, will be part funded by the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

The building would go alongside the Agri-tech building

The planning application says the centre will "serve as a university centre and rural hub, providing around 875sq m of teaching, office and collaborative space with the aim of enhancing the opportunities for young people in areas of poor social mobility, to enable growth in the small rural businesses predominant in the area, and provide a focus for partner universities to come together to utilise the estate and for the site to enhance its knowledge transfer and research activities".

The application site is to the western part of the estate within a cluster of buildings known as Stinsford Farm, directly north of the Stinsford Village and east of Church Lane.

The college say many of the buildings in the area are concrete block or timber/ steel clad sheds with asbestos roofing and have long outgrown their original uses.

The new building is proposed on a  site between the existing ‘blue barn’ and the farmhouse and has been designed as a two storey building which will appear as a single storey to the south and two storeys from the north.

Architect drawing of the design

Student learning areas will predominately be located on the first floor with a separate student entrance on the south side of the building. A second entrance at ground floor level (north side) will be used by the public and for those involved in the small business units at ground level.

The building will mainly be used by students in 18+ higher education undertaking university level studies. It will have a mixture of teaching spaces of various sizes, open areas for flexible learning and break out spaces, together with a formal lecture theatre and a cafe which, in warmer weather, will open out onto its own terrace,

Half of the block will be used for agribusinesses engaged in the farming industry with the idea of offering support for start-up businesses. This will be in the form of dedicated business 'incubation units' close to the entrance on the ground floor.

The hub, which has been dubbed by principal Luke Rake as “a potential game-changer for the local student and business community”, could be open by September next year.

Comments on the planning application remain open until mid-March.