Up to 800 jobs will be created by the University of Bradford as it pushes ahead with capital projects totalling £45 million to revive the district’s economy.

The announcement comes as part of a package of recession-busting schemes the university has developed to try to boost employment prospects in the area.

The plans include a new School of Health Studies building at the university campus to replace the existing centre at St Luke’s Hospital and a sustainability centre for the Ecoversity project.

Professor Geoff Layer, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor, said: “When you walk around Bradford there’s lots of promise of buildings and it hasn’t all necessarily taken off.

“We have brought forward, with the help of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), a series of capital projects and we will be spending about £43m to boost spending patterns across the district through new building around here to create construction jobs.”

The projects includes refurbishing the School of Life Sciences, the students union and the JB Priestley Library.

A further £2m has been planned to be spent on maintenance work, taking the total amount of money to be spent to about £45m.

The money has come from Hefce, Yorkshire Forward and university investment.

Prof Layer said: “We would have been doing it, but we brought forward the expenditure to try to help a pick-up in the economy and Government has encouraged us and helped us to do that. And we are working with other developers around the university campus so further development could happen.

“We are a public sector body and we are financed primarily by the public purse.

“We have a turnover of £110m and we are at the heart of the Bradford district.

“We are successful and at the moment we are going through a successful phase and we believe we ought to be investing in the district and the district’s economy.”

Other initiatives to boost the economy include discounts of £750 for students and Bradford citizens studying anywhere in the world for post-graduate courses and business advice to aid recovery and development once the recession is over and develop existing staff.

Clive Wilson, director of estates and facilities at the university, said: “We reckon there will be between 500 and 800 people working on the projects.

“We have a framework agreement and part of that is to use local contractors wherever we can and the majority are either from Bradford or a ten to 20 mile radius of Bradford.”

The university also plans courses for low-paid university staff whose first language is not English and middle-management, at the university, to help their employability.

Councillor Adrian Naylor, the Council’s executive member for regeneration, said: “We welcome the involvement of the university in helping to regenerate the economy of Bradford.

“Higher education is a key element of Bradford’s well-being and success in the future and from that side of things the fact that this will create initial jobs in construction at the current time is a really positive step.”

In total the Hefce has helped bring forward more than £200m of capital funding at higher education institutes across the UK.

Hefce deputy chief executive Steve Egan said: “Through their quick responses to the two rounds of this programme, universities and colleges have demonstrated their determination to play their part in beating the recession.”