University leads the way to better tomorrow

It really knows how to roll its sleeves up and get stuck in.

With one inspired plan, it is able to expand its courses into a different county, improve the prospects for people to get skills and training that will lead to better jobs and provide a sound future for a much loved landmark.

The university is taking on Stafford's beloved Shire Hall.

Its future has been uncertain for a while as county councillors tried to come up with better and more efficient ways of spending public money and protecting the more vulnerable members of society.

In an age of austerity, it simply was not something that it could commit to preserving.

But rather than close or mothball it, Shire Hall gets a new purpose as a place where part time students can learn, many of whom will be holding down jobs elsewhere in Staffordshire and would find it otherwise difficult to get to Wolverhampton.

It is, the university's vice chancellor says, merely a coincidence that this decision comes after rival Staffordshire University's own decision to pull out of the town.

Nonetheless it is a happy one.

The University of Wolverhampton has adapted to the changing environment it is working in.

It has partnered with the Express & Star to help provide grants to businesses, bringing new jobs, under the Green Shoots programme with money from the Government's Regional Growth Fund.

It is investing millions in the city centre with its new science block and has seen the opportunity to export education around the world by forging links in China, Mauritius, India and elsewhere. The money it makes can go towards the education of students from Wolverhampton, the Black Country, Shropshire and now Staffordshire.

Cuts in public sector spending will also have meant fewer bodies prepared to fund their staff taking on training and academic qualifications.

So the university has to go to where there is demand.

Staffordshire and Wolverhampton are already working closely together for mutual benefit, most noticeably down at the i54 business park where the county and city councils are funding the multi-million pound slip road that helped attract Jaguar Land Rover there.

New Cross Hospital is lending a helping hand by taking on some of the services run by the trust that oversaw scandal-hit Stafford Hospital.

No-one would suggest the tough times are behind us. But out of darkness cometh light.