£50m project to relocate art college

The London Institute will spend £50 million relocating the Chelsea College of Art and Design to the former Royal Army Medical College next to Tate Britain.

Sir William Stubbs, rector of the London Institute, said he hoped to create an artists' quarter around Millbank.

The government announced that the institute's bid had been accepted just before Christmas. The bid was supported by three government departments, other art colleges and the Trustees of the Tate Gallery.

Lord Puttnam, chair of the General Teaching Council and champion of the institute's bid, said: "Locating Chelsea next to Tate Britain is of equal strategic significance to the decision to locate Imperial College next to the Science Museum."

A memorandum of understanding has been drawn up between the institute and Tate Britain. This will include reciprocal use of libraries, studios and lecture theatres and collaboration on education programmes and exhibitions.

The sale of the four sites that Chelsea occupies in Hammersmith, Fulham and Chelsea will pay for the Millbank building and its redevelopment. The new college plans to open its doors in October 2003.

• Graduates of the Royal Academy of Arts have criticised its decision to move 60 postgraduate students to the Museum of Mankind building. They said the studio light conditions would not be as good as where they are now.

The Royal Academy bought the site from the Department of Media, Culture and Sports in a £45 million development programme.

Birkbeck College is to spend £15 million developing its campus. If planning approval is granted, 1960s accommodation will be replaced with a new extension block and the main entrance will move to Torrington Square.

The money will come from the Higher Education Funding Council and proceeds from the sale of Birkbeck's Gresse Street building.