Image of the new look Students' Union area
It is only by offering quality facilities to support our high quality of teaching that we can ensure students will want to come to Derby.
Ian Willgoose, Director of Estates at the University of Derby
Improvements worth around £900,000 will have been made to the University of Derby's city campus by the time students return in September.
A new look Students' Union area, a makeover for the main entrance of the University's Kedleston Road site and an improved library are among the projects set to be completed over the summer break, before the bulk of Derby's students return for the 2009/2010 academic year.
The work is being co-ordinated by the University's Estates department and, at its Kedleston Road site, will include:
- £350,000 to continue a programme of improvements to the Learning Centre (library), including new entrance, more open access, a better help desk and IT services, and social seating areas;
- £300,000 to build a new mezzanine floor and entrance area for the Students' Union bar and increase social space available to support the popular Blends coffee bar;
- £100,000 for a dance studio at the Kirtley Building;
- £80,000 to modernise the external fascia of the Kedleston Road site's front elevation, making it more welcoming to students and visitors.
Over the summer internal modifications worth around £60,000 will also be made to the University's Arts, Design and Technology building at Markeaton Street, to create more space and information technology provision.
The works are part of the ongoing Estates programme to improve the University's facilities. Funding has come from the University's own budget.
They are in addition to previously announced projects such as the £13.5m refenestration of the three 1960s-built Kedleston Road towers, the £6m improvements to its Britannia Mill building in Mackworth Road and the new £8m Business and Enterprise Centre in Bridge Street (all three currently ongoing); and the now completed all-weather sports pitch and tennis courts for the Derby campus.
Ian Willgoose, Director of Estates at the University, said: "The competition between universities to attract students is intense these days and it is only by offering quality facilities to support our high quality of teaching that we can ensure they will want to come to Derby, boosting its economy, rather than go elsewhere.
"We have a short period of time over the summer, when the majority of students have left, to make these changes and will need to work flat out to ensure that they are completed before they return in September."
Ian's team will also be renovating parts of the new Derby Theatre in the city centre, ready for its formal opening, also in September.
The contractor for the Students' Union project is Opl, who are also behind the current towers' refenestration.