ESTATES STRATEGY AND DEVELOPMENT
The overriding aim of our estates development is to provide a high-quality, sustainable and flexible environment for students, staff and other stakeholders across our 180,000 sq.m estate. Several years ago the University Board approved a ‘two-campus’ strategy, to focus its teaching and learning on the City Centre Campus (located at Eastside), and the City South Campus in Edgbaston. The strategy aimed to: • raise the profile of Birmingham City University • improve student experience • develop a better teaching and learning environment • remove organisational barriers between departments and faculties • provide a sense of home for students • embrace new technologies
• embrace new ways of teaching and learning • provide flexibility within the spatial planning • increase revenues and decrease costs • be a quality group of buildings that showcases the University’s excellence • be a flagship campus with high levels of accessibility • be an exemplar of best practice • be sustainable in terms of design, specification, construction and in occupation • adopt innovative technologies • decrease running costs
The Master Project Plan to deliver this strategy is now well advanced. The three faculties of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment; Arts, Design and Media; and Business, Law and Social Sciences are all housed at the City Centre, and Health, Education and Life Sciences are based on the City South site. The School of Education is the one remaining academic unit on the Perry Barr campus in the north of the city, but this will move to City South in 2017. The new developments in recent years comprise: • Millennium Point (Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment): purpose-designed leased space • Parkside Building (Arts, Design and Media) • Curzon Building (Business, Law, Social Sciences) There are several ‘live’ construction projects: • The new Birmingham Conservatoire (City Centre) • Curzon B (a 10 000 sq m addition to the Curzon Building) • City South campus development to support Health and Life Sciences • The Joseph Priestley Building, accommodating professional service department staff relocating from Perry Barr campus The total capital commitment for all of the above projects exceeds £280m. The University also delivers some of its academic programmes from a limited number of locations within walking distance of the City Centre campus; notably the Jewellery School (in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter); and the new Birmingham Assay Office. We are also in the process of reviewing our student accommodation provision, and are currently exploring options for the development of circa 500 new student bedrooms, to ensure that we maintain a suitable mix of accommodation provision.
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