The University of Bristol’s ambitious plans for a £300m ‘transformational’ new campus next to Temple Meads railway station will put the city among the world’s leading centres for innovation, according to Mayor Marvin Rees.
The scheme, announced this week, will also help bridge the gap between prosperous parts of the city and those that have not benefited from its economic success by opening up new opportunities, he said.
The plans will also not only create thousands of jobs in the digital and hi-tech sectors but also rid the city at last of the unloved derelict former sorting office, pictured.
The seven-acre scheme, one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the UK, will build on Bristol’s growing global reputation as centre for innovation and collaboration between business and the university. 
The new campus will include a digital innovation hub, what is described by the university as a ‘business school of the future’ and a student residential village with bars and cafes – and as well the previously announced Engine Shed 2, which will expand and extend the highly successful enterprise hub which houses the award-winning SETsquared business incubator.
The University of Bristol and Bristol City Council say it will also open up new opportunities for young people in the city – with Mayor Marvin Rees seeing it as a catalyst to create opportunities for some of the city’s communities that so far have not shared in its recent economic growth or have access to high-value jobs.
He said: “This news confirms our place as the UK’s most technologically advanced city-region and one of the world’s leading digital cities. The future of UK industry relies on an ability to innovate and lead in the digital and technological sectors, but of course this must be built on the foundations of a stronger, fairer society which provides equal opportunity to everyone.
“With this partnership we are seizing an opportunity, bringing partners together in new ways and connecting local people, businesses, academics and students both to each other and to a vast range of future opportunities. This will also attract more investment to the city, strengthen our global reputation and create a welcoming and inclusive new part of the thriving Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. As a UNESCO Learning City we can also be proud to expand our educational offer in this way.
“The deal also gives us renewed hope of a solution to the eyesore of the former Sorting Office. In future, visitors will no longer be welcomed to Bristol by a derelict building, but by a flourishing and inclusive home of digital excellence, innovation, education and industry.” 
It will also strengthen links between the university and the city’s buoyant tech sector. One of the university’s leading industry partners, US tech giant Oracle, will play a key role in helping shape the courses taught on the campus and its support for start-up and scale-up firms.
Phil Bates, leader of Oracle’s Bristol cloud development centre, said: “Oracle is delighted to be part of this unique development, which will bring together one of the world’s best universities with industry and the city.
“This new initiative will ensure we have the talent pipeline industry needs, and also that researchers in academia and industry can work side-by-side, co-creating new technologies with students and future users and bringing new ideas to fruition.”
The university has set itself an ambitious timescale to open the campus in time for the start of the 2021/22 academic year.
University of Bristol vice-chancellor and president, Professor Hugh Brady, pictured above with Mayor Rees, said: “This is an historic moment for the University of Bristol and for the city-region. This new initiative is, I believe, truly unique: a dynamic partnership between the university, industry and the city, located in an enterprise zone and major transport hub and offering the opportunity to position Bristol as a global leader in digital and educational innovation.
“We now have the opportunity to re-imagine our University as an organisation that is completely porous with our partners, enabling students, researchers and people from all walks of life to move seamlessly between the city, the academy and the workplace, feeding the talent pipeline and creating opportunities.”
Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said the new campus was a “brilliant example” of the government’s industry strategy in action, with government, academia and industry collaborating to deliver “future-focused training that will build on Bristol’s growing reputation as a digital and tech cluster”.
The campus will be a key part of the 70-hectare Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, which has the potential to attract more than 17,000 jobs over its 25-year lifetime and add a further £100m a year to the city’s economy.
The enterprise zone will also include Bristol’s long-awaited 12,000-capacity arena.
