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Loughborough University is in the process of setting up a Centre for Enterprise Education, Insider can exclusively reveal. The university is now in talks with local businesses about setting up the Centre, according to Angus Laing, the dean of the School of Business and Economics at the university.

The new facility will help ease graduates from the university into the world of work, said Laing.

He added that the university was also looking to capitalise on accommodating the Japanese Olympic team next year.

He said: “We want to bring in large numbers of international students to the university and the Olympics will magnify that chance. We’re teaming up with a range of Japanese businesses to try and open doors and foster links with the university.”

Laing also said he’d like to see the School of Business and Economics work more closely with Loughborough’s fabled sports department.

He added: “There’s an ethos of success and dedication attached to top sportspeople that we could successfully transfer throughout the university. That would then come out in our students and graduates. Few universities in the country can attract top people from the ECB or British Swimming the way we can, and we should take advantage of that.

Laing said that Loughborough wasn’t looking to compete in the same arenas as Leicester or the two Nottingham universities. “The success the university has had over the past decade points very well for the future. Of course we’re a different beast to Leicester and Nottingham, but then we’re offering slightly different things, and we think we’re a different proposition.”

It also emerged yesterday that the university’s Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is also is set to support one of five new Industrial Doctorate Centres that are being launched across the UK to train the next wave of engineers for the automotive and aerospace industries.

Universities and science minister David Willetts made the announcement today during a visit to Loughborough University. The Industrial Doctorate Centre is linked to the Manufacturing Technology Centre at Ansty Park near Coventry and is a joint project between Loughborough University, the University of Nottingham and the University of Birmingham universities as well as TWI, the operating division of The Welding Institute.

Professor Rob Parkin heads up the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. He said: “It’s an exciting project and one that will further strengthen our ties with industry. The centre will mean that we can work with our industrial partners on core research that they have identified could be of benefit to their business. Some of the projects may be mutually beneficial to a number of these partners while others will specifically help just the one organisation.

The project is being jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with 50 per cent of funding coming from “industrial partners”.

Launching the new centres Willetts, said: “These new centres will generate a new wave of engineers with the knowledge and skills to become future business leaders and create new innovation and economic growth for the UK.

“They focus on key areas of advanced manufacturing, which are vital to the UK’s major industrial sectors including the aerospace and automotive industry. These talented young innovators will help fuel future economic growth for the UK.”