NEWCASTLE University will be able to boost its full-time student numbers by 350, following a partnership designed to secure the future of lifelong learning.

About 3,000 students of the University's Centre for Lifelong Learning have been told that its future is secure, following the partnership with Sunderland University.

The new arrangementwill maintain the part-time higher education courses already offered through the Newcastle centre, and Sunderland's School of Education and Lifelong Learning.

They will be managed by Sunderland University.

It means that Newcastle University will be able to focus on attracting more full-time students as part of its restructuring programme, which has seen around 300 staff take voluntary redundancy.

There are already more than 18,000 students at the university, compared with around 16,600 for the previous year, and the institution is looking for savings of £8m a year to help it compete with the country's top ten universities.

Professor Madeleine Atkins, Newcastle University's vice-chancellor for teaching and learning, denied that yesterday's announcement would make the university more elitist.

She said: "Quite the reverse, because this means Newcastle University is able to expand its full- time places for young people and develop our partnership with schools and colleges in the Tyneside area."

Professor Christopher Edwards, the vice chancellor of Newcastle University, said: "Throughout the process, we have responded to the concerns staff and students have expressed and this outcome is a win-win situation for them."

Doug Ambrose, student representative for the Newcastle centre, said students "strongly supported" the partnership.

The universities hope provision may be widened in future to include other institutions in the region.

Mike Collier, One NorthEast chief executive, said: "This new partnership is most welcome in promoting lifelong learning to so many students."