Plans for a new University Technical College (UTC) specialising in engineering and computer science have been submitted to Dartford council.

The multi-million pound Leigh UTC, for up to 600 students, will be built on the site of the old Joyce Green Hospital in Bob Dunn Way, Dartford, and is expected to open next year.

The plans include parking for 53 vehicles, including three spaces for disabled drivers.

There will also be room for 30 bicycles.

The distinctive look of the building will be created with aluminium-framed windows, coloured rendering, bricks, rooflights and solar panels.

The college is marketed as a radical solution to increasing the number of technicians and engineers in the country, and will work in a different way to schools.

Students will be aged 14 to 18 with a day starting at 8.30am and finishing at 5pm – but there will be no homework.

The school year is 40 weeks long, with either four or five terms, adding the equivalent of a whole extra year of instruction for every two years a pupil is in the UTC rather than a normal school or college.

Pupils spend the equivalent of two days a week on practical study and three days a week on academic study.

There are five UTCs already open nationally, a further 12 open this year and 15 in 2014, of which The Leigh UTC will be one.

The Leigh UTC will offer a range of extended college facilities, including access to the hall, gym, dining hall and other spaces which might be used as a community facility in the evenings.

The workshops will also host adult education classes.

A decision is expected in September.

The college will be run by the Leigh Academies Trust which already oversees the Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford, York Road Junior Academy and Language Unit in Dartford, Wilmington Academy, the Milestone Academy in New Ash Green for pupils with special needs and Longfield Academy.