Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis will join the Archbishop of York at Durham University next week to welcome the launch of a new, student-led, interfaith group.

Set up in partnership with the Council of Christians and Jews, the CCJ Student Presidents (CCJSP) is a community made up of students of different faiths across the UK.

The group will hold an annual national conference and invite members to apply for a scholarship to study interfaith relations.

“We’ve been aware for some time that there are interfaith issues on campus that need to be addressed,” said Rev David Gifford, CCJ’s chief executive.

“This would be an important, contributing way to help relations.”

According to Rev Gifford, having the Chief Rabbi and Archbishop John Sentamu present at the launch will give it “credibility and gravitas”.

He said: “It’s important that university authorities take notice. The fact that two prominent faith leaders will be there in discussion with students, listening and learning from each other, will really help.”

The leaders will launch the scheme on Wednesday evening with a discussion on “Interfaith in the 21st Century”, which will then be followed by a question-and-answer session with the student audience.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis said he hoped the new initiative would help “foster CCJ’s work” in “celebrating what we share and respecting differences. Today’s students are our lay and religious leaders of tomorrow.”