With multi-million schemes, plus a new title, King Alfred's College, in Winchester, is planning massive changes, but there are obstacles ahead.

Poised to become University College, Winchester, in June, it is dropping "King Alfred" from its title and logo.

The college also plans to build a student centre, lecture building, all-weather sports pitch and rooms for between 300 and 500 students.

The hurdles facing the college include funding the building programme and tackling the lack of parking at the Sparkford Road campus.

One major barrier, that of obtaining university college status, was cleared last summer. The college can now award its own degrees instead of issuing them through Southampton University.

The first students to receive University College, Winchester degrees will be postgraduates starting courses in September and graduating in 2005.

The college currently has 5,750 full and part-time students. Of these, 500 study at the Basingstoke campus, with the remainder at the Sparkford Road site, which will be renamed King Alfred's Campus in June.

KAC vice principal, Tommy Geddes, said: "We don't expect a major increase in the number of students at Winchester, so we won't be vastly expanding the campus. We won't be extending it, we'll be improving it."

Mr Geddes said the college was now better placed to upgrade its main campus, having gained control of its budget from Whitehall in the 1990s.

Within the last year, it has built a performance space and fitness suite inside an old gymnasium at a cost of £850,000.

Next on the agenda is converting the 1960s John Stripe Theatre into a lecture building at a cost of around £2m. City planners approved the scheme last month. They also gave outline permission for a new student centre, which could cost over £6m.

The centre would include a bar and disco, along with an internet caf, shops, refectory, and Students' Union offices.

Mr Geddes said the college had consulted students over what they wanted in the building. More detailed plans are now being produced to gain full planning permission, with a possible opening date in 2007.

The college also wants to build between 300 and 500 extra rooms for students, in addition to its current provision of 1,100.

The college has not decided whether to build the rooms on the main campus or not. Mr Geddes said the plans were at an early stage, and carried a possible price tag of £10m.

The master's lodge in Romsey Road is also scheduled for a makeover, likely to cost £500,000. The building will be made available for research suites and units for small businesses.

Off campus, the college wants an all-weather pitch near its sports pavilion at the King George V playing fields in Bar End.

It is looking for partners to share in building and maintenance costs in return for use of the pitch.

While the college, founded in 1840, has a wide-ranging programme of building works, one major headache is a lack of parking.

Mr Geddes says the college tries to promote public transport providing lockers for bicycles. He acknowledges that a large number of students and staff park in residential areas near the college.

"If they want to use their cars and they park legally on the street, then we can't stop them, "says Mr Geddes, who says there is an urgent need for a park and ride scheme south of Winchester at Bushfield Camp.

The issue first surfaced when the West Down Student Village at Romsey Road was built in the late 1990s. The college agreed with planners to provide no parking for the 700 students at the halls.

"That was done on the basis that the council would provide a park and ride site at Bushfield Camp," said Mr Geddes.

Almost a decade later the college is still waiting.

"Progress has been appallingly slow," he says.

Bushfield Camp is still owned by the Church Commissioners, as Hampshire County Council is yet to buy the land. Earlier this year, the council completed a 430-space extension to the Bar End park and ride site, after years of legal battles.