ONE of the region's leading education institutions celebrated its 70th birthday yesterday, but is looking to its future rather than its past.

It was called the Constantine Technical College when it was opened by the then Prince of Wales, but the college is now known in the North-East as The University of Teesside, in Middlesbrough.

The college was opened in 1930, became Britain's 13th polytechnic in 1969 and was awarded university status in 1992. Now student numbers are nearing 15,000.

It expanded in the 1960s and 1970s and the 11-storey building, a feature of the Teesside skyline, was built in 1963.

During the 1980s, it developed at a much slower rate than other institutions and is only making up for that in recent years.

The university has undergone a large amount of building work in the past few years to construct a campus. This will finish later this year with the School of Health Centuria Building and the Centre for Enterprise.

Professor Derek Fraser, vice-chancellor of the university, said he hoped it would build on the foundations and develop the Constantine and polytechnic traditions.

He said: "I think we will continue to build on our recent successes with Investors in People and teaching quality assessments and renew our financial strength so that we can complete the job we set ourselves with Campus 2000."