THE University of York has secured £12 million towards a £38 million new flagship research and teaching centre.

The new £38 million centre - codenamed Complex X - will pioneer closer collaboration between the arts and sciences in a joint initiative involving the city's four further and higher education institutions.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has agreed a £12 million package towards the scheme.

Complex X will house a Creative Technologies Hub, which has been developed in collaboration with York St John College and York College as a teaching and research facility for use by the partners in Higher York.

It will be the focal point of the first phase of the university's planned campus expansion at Heslington East, and will be home to York's new department of theatre, film and television while the university's department of computer sciences and the bulk of electronics will also be relocated there.

Vice Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor said: "Our proposals for Complex X are founded on collaboration both between departments and with other local and regional academic institutions. It will create new and exciting intellectual partnerships in teaching and research."

The university's planning application for its £500 million campus extension, which won the backing of City of York Council in March, may now go to public inquiry.

Meanwhile, the university has been accused of social engineering, after agreeing to set entrance targets that favour state school pupils.

York is one of five top flight universities planning to favour state pupils over independent school youngsters in return for being able to set higher fees.

Plans sent to the Office For Fair Access (Offa) by Cambridge, Exeter, Leeds, King's College London and York all pledge to change their student intake in return for being able to raise annual fees to £3,000. Academics have attacked the plans as making social engineering part of the admissions process rather than pure academic merit.

York said it would increase the proportion of state entrants from 80 to 82 per cent by 2008.

A university spokesman said that although the changes are meant to increase the number of pupils from state schools, each application will be processed on its merits.

But Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, said: "It is very foolish of the universities to tie themselves to these targets because they may have to widen admissions on a social background rather than academic ability to meet them. They will then weaken themselves as universities."

A University of York spokesman said: "In the longer term, the university has ambitious plans to increase its total student numbers by 50 per cent, which will increase opportunities for pupils from state and private schools alike."

Updated: 08:33 Tuesday, May 10, 2005