University of Wales, Newport still demanded more evidence before committing to further talks and in November 2012, Leighton Andrews withdrew a consultation on plans to force a merger. The University opened a new £35 million campus in Newport's City Centre formally on 10 January 2011. The project was a collaboration between the University, Newport City Council and the Welsh Assembly Government operating through Newport Unlimited, the urban regeneration company for the City. The campus is situated on the east bank of the River Usk in the City Centre and it was the first phase of an intended £50m development for the University. It housed
Newport, Wales Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford in 1385. In the 14th century friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name "Spitty Fields" (a corruption of "ysbyty", the Welsh for hospital). "Austin Friars" also remains a street name in the city. During the Welsh Revolt in 1402 Rhys Gethin, General for Owain Glyndŵr, forcibly took Newport Castle together with those at Cardiff,