Plans to create one of the the biggest universities in the UK have been approved for Manchester.

The governing bodies at the University of Manchester and UMIST have voted in favour of plans to merge.

Their proposal is to dissolve the existing institutions and create a new university.

The University of Manchester voted unanimously in favour of the plans, while at UMIST, two votes out of 28 were against.

World class

The vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, Professor Sir Martin Harris, and the principal and vice-chancellor of UMIST, Professor John Garside, said in a joint statement: "This is good news for the two universities, for Manchester and the North West region.

"We now have the opportunity to create a truly world class university that will continue to attract the best students, the most talented staff and significant research funds from around the world.

"The creation of a new institution will be a challenging but exciting task."

It is hoped the new university will be able to apply for large research grants more easily, and have more student places available.

More opportunities

A working party set up to look at the idea had already decided unanimously that the dissolution and recreation plan was the best way forward.

It felt the new university would be more competitive internationally and would offer more opportunities for students at all levels, with new subject combinations.

It will be up and running by 2004, with its name to be decided next year.