GLASGOW is finally to get a £150million super college campus after a bitter wrangle ended in an agreement to merge.

Four further education colleges will keep their own names, but will form one of Britain's biggest campuses, catering for 46,000 students and employing 2000 workers.

The confirmation brings to an end six months of uncertainty after the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies said it was pulling out of the plan to create the city's first super college by merging with Stow College, the Central College of Commerce and Glasgow Metropolitan College.

The decision to abandon the merger triggered talks behind the scenes and today it was revealed the Nautical College has agreed to rejoin the others and proceed with the merger.

The Scottish Funding Council will now spend £5m on drawing up architectural designs for the super college.

Chairman John McClelland said: "The development of the project has taken a lot of hard work. But with the support of everyone involved I am confident Glasgow will become home to the most exciting further education facility in the UK."

The four colleges will retain their separate identities, despite the initial idea of promoting courses under one new name or brand.

But they will work together to form a so called fully-integrated learning area within five years, based on sites at modern halls of residence in Thistle Street and Cathedral Street.

Funding managers have approved in principle the business case for a city centre campus which has been developed in consultation with the city council and the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow.

An SFC spokeswoman said: "This clears the way for the release of the first tranche of funding which will initially cover professional fees and means the project has passed its first milestone."

Nautical College chiefs dropped out when they discovered their partners wanted to slash provision at their Thistle Street site.

They claimed a third of their courses would be scrapped. The college's board of managers rejected the proposal and decided to pull out of the merger plan.

The blueprint for change is a major cost-cutting exercise but college principal Janet Okten said at the height of the row: "This is not the solution we signed up to."