A SEEMINGLY doomed rural university campus that looked set to close for good is back up and running and ready to take in its first batch of new students for two years.

Last February, the University of Glasgow's Crichton campus in Dumfries announced it would be stopping admissions due to reported losses of £800,000 a year, despite student protests and a cross-party campaign to save the site.

However, a £1.5 million funding package from the Scottish government has rescued the campus, meaning that the satellite facility is set to start accepting admissions again now that the long-term future of the site is assured.

Professor Ted Cowan, the director of Glasgow University's Crichton campus, said the move will halt the "brain drain" of young talent from the region. He also praised the SNP for salvaging a facility that one local MP had previously said would take a "miracle" to save.

"The SNP have to be given full credit for following through on their election promise to keep it open," he said.

The University of Glasgow building will soon be sharing the 85 acres of parkland and gardens it lies in with a new "supercampus" for Dumfries and Galloway College, together with a University of the West of Scotland facility.

"We've benefited from three things," said Cowan. "The rescue package from the government, the creation of the West of Scotland campus and the near-completion of the Dumfries and Galloway College building.

"The fact that these two other campuses are also on the same site means that we can carry out shared ventures and pool our resources to an extent," he added. "For instance, there will be a new library that will be used by all three."

After more than two years without new students at Crichton, Cowan said he believed admissions for the 2008-09 academic year were encouraging.

"Our own figures are looking very healthy at undergraduate level and are also very promising at postgraduate level. We are also looking to bring in a series of new degrees, such as Robert Burns Studies, which will take effect in 2009.

"We now have secure funding, which is a massive problem taken off our hands, and I do not think that we have ever had a better opportunity to expand and develop the campus than we do now."

Cowan admits, however, that the good news hasn't travelled that far or fast, and there are still people even within Dumfries and Galloway who are unaware that the campus has not closed its doors.

It is hoped that with a reinvigorated campus in Dumfries, it will also help to slow the brain drain of talent from the region and give local residents the chance to experience university life.

Cowan said: "If you look at the central belt, you are never more than 20 miles from a university, but not everyone can, or wants to, travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh to get that university experience."

The setting is radically different from the busy, city-centre campus in Glasgow, and similarly the degree programmes vary from the University of Glasgow's main offerings.

"We also offer a number of compulsory courses which are not done at the main university," added Cowan.

"What we are doing here is trying to say that university is accessible to everyone, not just those in Glasgow or Edinburgh."