A NORTH-EAST university has unveiled multi-million plans to make improvements to its city centre campus.

Northumbria University will spend £52 million over the next two years on its Newcastle – building on the £200 million invested in its City and Coach Lane campuses over the last ten years.

The area around Northumbria's Students' Union and Library will now be transformed to create a new Student Central zone that will bring together all student-facing services, such as careers, welfare and international support to one area in the heart of the campus.

Two new state-of-the-art new buildings will also be constructed to bring major benefits for students on computing and information sciences and architecture and built environment courses.

The university will demolish its dated Rutherford Hall to create a new building for computing students.

With a design inspired by the father of computing, Charles Babbage, it will be equipped with the very latest industry-standard technologies.

In addition, the historic 18th century Sutherland Building will be transformed with the addition of a modern, yet sympathetically designed, extension to create a bright and airy building with improved studio spaces for the School of Architecture.

Ellison Building is being refurbished to bring in new cutting-edge laboratories and facilities, while there are plans to extensively upgrade and refit the 1970s Lipman Building.

Pandon Building, currently home to students on computing courses, will also be transformed over the next 18 months to become a dedicated base for staff working in professional support services.

Work on all of these projects will begin over the coming months, with most expected to be complete and ready for teaching from September 2018.