As many as 2,500 jobs in construction are to be created as plans to turn a former hospital site into a learning hub get under way.

The Glasgow University project is also expected to attract around £1 billion of investment into the city over the next 10 years, more than twice the budget of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

It will see the university’s Gilmorehill campus extended over the 14-acre site of the old Western Infirmary, in what is said to be one of the largest educational developments in Scotland.

As part of the scheme, a research and innovation hub will be constructed, as well as new buildings for social sciences, health and engineering.

There will also be new public routes and a central square linking to Byres Road, and commercial opportunities in the form of restaurants, bars and a hotel.

The university moved to the Gilmorehill site in 1870 to allow closer cooperation between academics and medical professionals.

At the time, a clause was signed stating that if the hospital, which opened in 1874, ever ceased to be a hospital then the university could buy back the site.

Hospital facilities have now been transferred to the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which started taking in patients in April 2014 and is one of the largest acute hospitals in the UK.

It is now hoped the extension will help to maintain the university’s position as a world-leading institution.

Glasgow University principal and vice-chancellor Professor Anton Muscatelli said: “We hope to use the new site as a catalyst to attract and grow the very best academics, to attract the very best students and to ensure that Glasgow continues to be one of the top universities in the world.”

According to CITB’s latest Construction Skills Network report, 4,270 new construction jobs are expected in Scotland each year by 2020.