New universities sounds like the old ones

This article in The Guardian today has me puzzled; or perhaps I've just reached that age where you see all decisions turned around in the great circle of government and social change.

"The UK government wants to encourage the formation of a new class of university that will focus on science, technology and postgraduate training. Science minister David Willets said that there would be no extra public funding for the new institutions but that they would help to build the UK's research base through private and international investment"

Well call me mad, but I'm pretty sure that that's exactly what my fabulous first university of UMIST - University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology - used to be all about before it was subsumed (swallowed up and eventually annialated) by The University of Manchester.

So is this a call to go back to the good old days of the 1990s when universities were centres of excellence, research and breaking ground? 
I hope so. 

And does this mean we might see UMIST resurrected?
Please say yes.