Easton and Otley College considered setting up a university technical college

UTCs are a type of free school for students aged 14 to 19, offering technically-based courses, as well as the national curriculum.

There is currently one UTC in Norfolk, the UTC Norfolk in Norwich, which opened last year, and none in Suffolk.

The idea of setting up the proposed Easton and Otley UTC, which would have been based at the college's Suffolk campus, near Ipswich, was considered after the college was formed by the merger of the predecessor Norfolk and Suffolk colleges, and formed part of the fifth wave of applications to the government.

A new company, Easton & Otley College UTC Limited, was incorporated in September 2013 as part of the application process. Had the application gone ahead and been successful, it was due to open in 2015 or beyond.

A spokesman for Easton and Otley College said: 'During the application process, the college discovered that the proposals for a UTC could not be delivered very easily under the existing college structures.

'As a consequence of this, the college decided to remain committed to working with local employers and universities to develop employment skills of 14 to 18 year olds, an important UTC objective, via the existing further education college structure. This situation remains today.

'As it stands, there are no plans to revisit a UTC application process in the future.'

An application to strike the UTC company off the register was filed in June 2015.

The information released by the Department for Education also revealed an application was made in the eighth wave to set up UTC Vinten Technical Academy in Suffolk.