A 300-bedroom halls of residence could be open within two years to cope with the demand for university campus accommodation.

Bosses at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have identified land to the east of Britten House, in University Drive, Norwich, for the development.

They are open to offers for contractors willing to build the accommodation and are targeting a September 2014 opening date.

But no planning permission or funding is in place, with the proposal still needed to be cleared by UEA's university council. UEA is able to house 3,593 of its estimated 14,000 students in its residences, of which 156 live in shared rooms.

A spokesman for the university said there was a 'careful planning process' in the months leading up to the start of the academic year to meet accommodation requirements.

She added students were not provided with a place in halls of residence if their homes were within 12 miles of the university, were UK or EU undergraduates after their first year and home and EU postgraduates or returning overseas postgraduates.

She said: 'Our accommodation is very highly rated by our students and demand consistently outstrips supply. We are currently not able to offer a room to all students, particularly postgraduates.

'We are investigating our accommodation options so that in the future we may be able to offer many more of our students the opportunity to enjoy this aspect of the student experience.

'This advertisement was purely an attempt to test the market and see if there was interest from any developers who felt that they could turn the project around in this timescale. We will, of course, go through the usual channels of seeking approval from the university council and planning permission in the normal way, should this be the case.'