A TORY hopeful has joined the army of public figures who have condemned a decision not to grant Bolton Institute university status.

Bolton West Conservative Prospective Parliamentary candidate James Stevens spoke out against the decision after a meeting with Institute principal Mollie Temple.

The Institute was left reeling last month when the Privy Council determined not to grant the status based on recommendations from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).

The decision marked an unhappy ending to years of campaigning by Institute staff and the wider Bolton community but resulted in Ms Temple vowing that it would be "business as usual and proud of it" at the Institute.

Adding his weight to the debate, Mr Stevens said: "Bolton Institute is one of a handful of academic institutions that last year scored maximum marks in four subject areas under the QAA's own assessment scheme.

"Yet despite this evidence of the Institute's continued academic success the QAA refused to amend its earlier recommendation that the Institute's application for university status should be rejected."

Flawed

Mr Stevens said he was concerned that even though Ms Temple and her staff were able to show the Department for Education and Employment how the evidence in the QAA report was "flawed", ministers were not prepared to overturn the report and award the Institute the status it deserved.

"The decision not to award Bolton Institute the university status is richly deserves flies in the face of all the evidence," he claimed. "I am sorry that Government ministers were not prepared to stand by David Blunkett's 1997 promise to award the Institute university status especially when the QAA report was shown to be so fundamentally flawed."

Ms Temple welcomed the prospective MP's support but said the way forward for the Institute regarding university status was yet to be decided.

She said: "Mr Stevens requested to come and see about the Institute and, as I would with anyone who expresses and interest, I agreed to meet with him.

"We welcome his support as we welcomed the support of others in the town over the years.

"We are still discussing what out next step will be with regards to this issue and at this stage it is too early to say whether we will re-apply for university status." Mollie Temple