The first phase will include the creation of the Faculty Engineering Graduate School Building and a major refurbishment programme for the St Georges Campus (the quadrangle bounded by Mappin Street, Portobello Street, Newcastle Street and Broad Lane).
Planning permission has also been granted for the development of the New Engineering Building on the old Jessop East site, which will provide cutting edge teaching and research facilities. The new building will accommodate 1,600 extra students and nearly 400 more staff by 2020. This 21st century building will provide 19 state-of-the-art teaching laboratories, offices and student-led learning spaces. The University’s ambition is to create a landmark building to meet the aspirations of our students and staff and deliver a development the city will be proud of.
This programme will help us to accommodate our growth and also to dramatically improve the current condition of our working environment. This isn’t about painting the odd room, but about a major refurbishment programme over 6 years that will invest more than £50 million in refurbishing and remodelling large sections of our estate (approximately 13,000m2 in total).
Necessarily there will be some disruption during building work, but the University will strive both to minimise this and plan it around the core business of delivering teaching and research. Some movement of staff will be necessary to enable the refurbishment, but it is hoped that this short-term disruption will be a price worth paying for the improvement in working environments.