A technology centre to help the North-East bolster its reputation as a growing presence in the sector is due to open.

The £10m Centre for Creative Technologies (CCT) is being opened by the University of Teesside as part of its £22m project to make its technology and media facilities some of the best in the UK.

Together with the £12m Phoenix Building - home to the Institute of Digital Innovation and the DigitalCity project - the town is amassing a growing bank of facilities to provide education and support for new and growing digital enterprises on Teesside.

The CCT facility, in Middlesbrough, will provide 4,000sq m of studio space for teaching and learning, and it will be opened to students beginning their degree courses in autumn.

Professor Graham Henderson, the university's vice-chancellor, said the opening of the centre provided a perfect springboard for it to maximise its potential and growing reputation in areas such as computer animation, games development, design and digital media.

"We're looking forward to the start of the new academic year and the imminent opening of the CCT, which will ensure that Teesside remains one of the country's pre-eminent universities for media, design and computing," he said.

Facilities in the development include design studios, an experimental workshop, a newsroom, broadcast news studios and multimedia publishing studios and workshops.

There will also be suites for 2-D and 3-D computer animation, computer games art, design and programming, visualisation, graphics programming and digital music, and gallery space for exhibitions at the entrance.

Professor Gerda Roper, dean of the School of Arts and Media, said: "As a new landmark for the university, it represents a significant commitment to design and media education in the Tees Valley and the North-East.

"Design and media students already benefit from the excellent reputation of their courses and the expertise of their tutors, and these new facilities will offer one of the best teaching environments in the country."