A new medical school at the University of Lincoln will welcome its first students later this year after receiving planning permission last night.
The City of Lincoln Council’s planning committee have unanimously approved plans to build the £21 million Lincoln Medical School opposite the Isaac Newton Building.
The five-storey facility will welcome its first 95 students in September, with capacity growing to around 400 students when the building is complete in 2021.
Professor Andrew Hunter, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, said: “This building represents not just the success of creating a new medical school, but also our commitment to the communities in Lincolnshire who have supported us.”
The school is one of five new training facilities across the country that were announced in 2016 to expand home-grown talent in the NHS rather than recruiting from abroad.
The University of Lincoln successfully applied to open one of the new schools in partnership with the University of Nottingham.
New students will apply for courses through Nottingham but study at the school in Lincoln, which will also boast a green wall and a solar wall, making it the most sustainable building on campus.
The new schools were targeted at areas with a lack of doctors, and it is hoped that Lincoln’s facility will produce enough staff to tackle the problems facing local NHS services.
Professor Hunter added: “It is an exciting prospect to be training the medical professionals of the future who could have a direct impact on the health of the county and surrounding areas.”
It comes after the City of Lincoln Council also gave permission for the building of ten new blocks of student flats at a meeting of their planning committee last December.
Building work on the Lincoln Medical School is set to start this Autumn.