Education secretary praises newly opened NMITE

Hereford’s newly opened NMITE (New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering) “can be a model for other parts of the country”, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the House of Commons yesterday.

Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman told the Commons that NMITE is “a transformative model of higher education and further education together, focused on skills, and an extraordinary lift and shift model for levelling up”.

He asked Mr Zahawi: “Does he share my view that this is something that the Government should be really leaning into and supporting for the longer term?”

Mr Zahawi replied: “If we can make this work, it truly is scalable and can be a model for other parts of the country in our levelling-up agenda.”

Mr Norman Tweeted afterwards: “Absolutely delighted that @nadhimzahawi has strongly endorsed the long term levelling up potential of @nmite_ac for other cities across the UK.”

Last month NMITE’s chief executive Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon suggested the institute’s discipline should be renamed “ingineering”, and those who study it “ingeniators”, in order to “change ingrained perceptions about such an important discipline”.

The institute began delivering courses at its Blackfriars Street campus in September, following a delay. It has also begun work on a second campus at Skylon Park, Rotherwas.