Strathclyde announces £60m learning and teaching hub
New Delhi: A pioneering learning and teaching hub is under development at the heart of the University of Strathclyde’s campus with a £60 million investment.
The facility, which represents the University’s biggest single investment in a building project to date, will provide students with leading-edge teaching resources, digital technologies and new modes of learning that will support a first-class student experience.
The hub is being developed in close consultation with the University’s student community, and will also become the new base for Strathclyde’s student union and students’ association, as well as bringing the University’s student support services under one roof. The plans form part of a wider £650 million investment in transforming the Strathclyde campus over the current decade – including a new centre for sports, health and wellbeing and research and innovation hubs that connect Strathclyde’s world-class research to high-tech industry and business.
Transformation
Strathclyde Principal Professor Sir Jim McDonald said: “Our students are at the heart of everything we do at Strathclyde and the transformation of our campus reflects both our commitment to our students’ education and our status as a leading international technological university.
“Our student population is expanding and becoming increasingly diverse. The new teaching and learning hub will create innovative space for teaching and learning at the very heart of our campus, while giving easy access to the University’s support and advice services.
We’re working in collaboration with our students to create an exciting and inspiring environment, which together with our new centre for sport and health will help ensure our campus offers a first-class experience for many years to come.”
Calvin Hepburn, Students’ Association President, said: “The opening of the teaching and learning facility will provide us with the opportunity to further promote the work of the Students’ Association, emphasising our aim to support students’ personal development and experience at the University of Strathclyde.
“With its location at the heart of the campus and having been designed with students, for students, this building will most certainly have an impact. I’m excited for all students to make the most of this space – this is a building which will vastly improve the student experience and will be one that will be a lasting legacy for the University.”
The teaching and learning hub will:
· include large teaching spaces and group-working rooms
· make each space capable of supporting different teaching and learning purposes
· support flexible and innovative methods of education, including continuing professional development
· facilitate continuous access to modern teaching and learning facilities
The new facility will be created in the footprint of the former Architecture and Colville buildings. The detailed design stage is now underway to ensure that the new facility offers the flexibility for new, digitally-enhanced modes of teaching and learning, including lecture capture and ‘flipped classrooms’, where students use class sessions for discussion and interactive group work.
The investment is the latest in a series of campus developments, which include:
Strathclyde Sport, a £32 million state-of-the-art facility to support the sports men and women of tomorrow, as well as encouraging physical activity for all.
A district energy system with Combined Heat and Power plant, to revolutionise the campus’ energy production and significantly reduce carbon emissions. A £23.2 million refurbishment of Strathclyde Business School, formally re-opened in November 2016, which has enabled the entire faculty to be consolidated in one business quarter.
The flagship Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) on George Street, which enables academics to work side-by-side with industry partners to find solutions to global challenges. The £89 million TIC building was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2015.
Completion of the learning and teaching facility is due in 2020.