Valencia wants EU loan for rebuilding

The European Investment Bank is considering plans to lend four universities in the Valencia region of Spain up to €85 million (£55 million) for a wide range of building projects to improve their educational, administrative and social facilities.

If the bank's board gives the project the go ahead, which is expected later this year, it would be the latest in a line of loans made by the European Union's premier lending institution to higher education projects.

The plan involves the money being lent to a consortium that represents the city of Valencia as well as the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic-University of Valencia, the University of Alicante and the University of Jaume I of Castellon.

The loan would be spent on the construction of new buildings and the upgrading of old ones. Teaching, research, administrative and sports facilities would all benefit.

In the past two years, the EIB has lent €100 million to four Austrian universities, €104 million to the Universita degli Studi di Torino in Italy, €100 million to higher education in Germany's Saarland and €95 million to Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.

A report on the Valencia loan said that the project "is expected to generate educational benefits by improving the learning environment of students". If granted, the loan would secure half of the project's costs.