Minister for Employment and Learning Sir Reg Empey today performed the official sod cutting of Southern Regional College’s Downpatrick Campus.

The sod turning marks the start of a £40 million Public Private Partnership project to construct new educational facilities at four of the College’s campuses.


Six new Northern Ireland further education colleges were created in August 2007 following a series of mergers of further and higher educational institutes in the province.

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Southern Regional College was formed by the merger of Armagh College of Further and Higher Education, Newry & Kilkeel Institute of Further and Higher Education and Upper Bann Institute of Further and Higher Education.

The new Southern Regional College caters for approximately 50,000 students each year, and has almost 1,100 members of staff.

The college offers over 100 courses for full-time further education, in addition to 80 courses on full-time and part-time higher education capacity.

The college’s Downpatrick campus offers a number of industry-relevant training areas in construction, information technology and more recently in biomass, solar heat pump and other forms of Renewable energies.

(PR)