THE new principal at Askham Bryan College, near York, says the key to its future is to continue to branch out beyond traditional agriculture courses.

Professor Gareth Rees has taken up his new post at a time of change for the industry and after a difficult year blighted by foot and mouth disease.

At the same time, the number of employers like garden centres, wildlife parks and golf courses is on the increase.

"The industry we serve has been totally savaged," said Prof Rees.

"My target for this college is for it to diversify to meet the needs of the industry we were set up to serve."

Prof Rees's arrival has coincided with the completion of new glasshouses at the college, which are to be opened to the public as a plant centre for two days a week. The aim is to give horticulture students experience of commercial work, as well as providing more room for coursework and research.

In June, the college will open a new animal care unit, which will also open to the public, to cater for animal management students, destined for careers in zoos and wildlife parks.

Prof Rees said another key area to develop was rural regeneration.

But he said the working farm would continue to be at the heart of the college.

He said he "fell in love with the place" when he came up for his interview at Askham Bryan, from his former post as director of higher education at Farnborough College of Technology.

An environmental scientist, he launched the first conservation management HND in the 1980s, and said he had been keen to come to a land-based specialist college.

He is renting a cottage on the North York Moors and his wife and four children plan to join him at the end of the school year.

Updated: 09:27 Thursday, April 25, 2002