CATHOLIC leaders have hailed plans to rescue an historic college, announced just days before its 200-year-old seminary is set to close.

St Cuthbert's Seminary, at Ushaw College, near Durham City, will cease training priests later this month, amid falling rolls and worsening finances.

However, a rescue plan has now emerged to turn the Grade I and II-listed buildings into an extension of Durham University's world-leading Centre for Catholic Studies - which would be renamed The International Centre for Advanced Catholic Studies.

Trustees are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with university chiefs shortly.

Meanwhile, a bishops' summit has also commissioned a detailed feasibility study to identify future uses for the college.

Responding to the announcement, Monsignor John Marsland, president of Ushaw College, said he was delighted its traditions would continue and its future was secure.

He said: "We are delighted that the work and efforts of the steering group have resulted in a proposal that will allow the heritage of Ushaw College, its collections and library as well as its educational traditions to continue and secure a future for this very important estate within the Roman Catholic community."

The Right Reverend Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury - who has chaired a steering committee on Ushaw's future, said he was looking forward to working with the university and others on securing Ushaw's future.

"The college can no longer provide for the training of priests but true to its inheritance across more than 200 years on this site can continue to be a centre for Catholic scholarship and be accessible to the wider community," he said.

Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said Ushaw College and its collections had a very special place in the Christian heritage of Durham and the North-East and, with the university and Cathedral's archives, comprised one of the world's most important collections of books, manuscripts and artefacts.

"We look forward to working with the Ushaw trustees to ensure that these collections remarkable buildings are not only preserved intact in Durham but are also made more widely known and available to the community as well as to educators and researchers from Durham University and around the world," he said.

It is not yet known when the results of the feasibility study will be announced.