The nub of the plan is to create a single campus that will see construction of new teaching and research buildings, student facilities and major improvements to the public realm.

The £700m first phase will be delivered over the next six years and will throw a lifeline to north west’s building industry.

Plans include building of a new engineering campus, new centres for the school of law and Manchester Business School, a major refurbishment of the university library, a bigger students’ union and new medical school.

Investment will also go into building a combined heat and power facility, as well as a new car park and the refurbishment of the telescope at Jodrell Bank.

The University will also spend several million pounds to improve the University’s public realm and landscaping in order to capitalise on the future improvements to Oxford Road, which will see wider pavements, tree-lined boulevards and the removal of all cars during 2015.

Outline plans have been drawn up for a second £300m phase which would begin in 2018 and end in 2022.

This second phase would create a biomedical campus around the existing Stopford Building, a new health centre for staff and students, and includes refurbishments in the schools of computer science, earth, atmospheric and environmental sciences, mathematics and chemistry.

Director of Estates and Facilities Diana Hampson said: “Since the merger of the two universities in 2004, it has been our ambition to bring all of the academic activity together on a single site south of the Mancunian Way, which will improve efficiency, improve the student experience and reduce the University’s carbon footprint.

“This visionary building programme will give us one of the most modern campuses in the world, where the vast majority of our students will be studying in brand new or refurbished buildings.”

The new investment is in addition to the £750m spent since 2004 which has already seen the completion of ten new buildings and many large scale refurbishments.