Struggling high streets are set to be given a new lease of life by turning empty shops into classrooms.
Dozens of schools, colleges and universities are said to be looking at taking over large empty stores and converting them into laboratories, lecture theatres and seminar rooms.
Others have already capitalised on the chance to snap-up buildings which, because of their size and the difficulties for many retailers, are proving hard to fill.
It comes as figures last week from property information firm CoStar Group revealed more than eight out of 10 department stores have shut in the five years since the collapse of BHS.
Analysis showed over two-thirds of those shops remain shut, with nearly 240 standing empty.
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It tracked some of the biggest department chains, from BHS and Beales to Debenhams and House of Fraser, from 2016 to the present day.
One of those saved is the old Debenhams in the heart of Gloucester.
The city’s university bought the store and is refurbishing the 1930s Art Deco building into a teaching campus with 20,000 square meters of space over five floors.
Where once shoppers trawled the aisles, the space will soon be filled with students and teachers.
Vice Chancellor Stephen Marston said: “We’re delighted our plans will help breathe new life and purpose into a place that is central to the city’s heritage.”
He said the conversion could “make a major contribution to creating a better future for our community.”
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Elsewhere, the Tamworth Co-op’s historic department store recently closed.
Most of the building is due to be knocked down and replaced, in part, with an arts college.
Two hundreds miles away and Margate School has taken over the Kent seaside town’s former Woolworths store, which had stood empty for more than a decade, and turned it into a theatre and exhibition space.
Other institutions are drawing up similar plans, promising to boost centres blighted by empty shops.
The University of Manchester has announced it is part of a £1.5billion plan to develop a business district in the heart of the city.
In Bridgend, South Wales, the council plans to redesign the town centre to include moving Bridgend College into the centre.
The University of Worcester aims to convert a former newspaper office in the heart of the city.
And reports say the University of Oxford has looked at the local Debenhams store.
The trend comes as experts say town and city centres will need to consider a host of different uses for physical stores, given a big shift in shopping habits.
The coronavirus pandemic has hastened the demise of many stores chains, leading to a wave of closures.
Fashion chain Gap became the latest to announce a call by confirming 19 store closures in the UK and Ireland.
Various reviews have also called for an overhaul of planning laws to encourage shops to be used for housing, health or community projects.
Expert Graham Soult, of the retail consultancy Canny Insights, said: “It is important to say that retail isn’t dead, it has a part to pay in centres, but it is about the blend.
“If you look at some of the redevelopments of the 1960s and 70s, they were often almost exclusively retail.
“In many ways what we’re seeing now is a turning back of the clock.
“You often have colleges that moved out of the town centre which are now making a return, and that can have such a positive impact.
“It can help sustain restaurants, pubs and other businesses nearby.”
The idea of converting large stores into classrooms in not entirely new, however.
Plummers was once the oldest department store in Southampton, dating back to 1896.
A new large store, built in 1965, closed in 1993 and was taken over by Southampton Institute, now Southampton Solent University, and renamed the James Matthews Building.