Manchester University plans £1bn investment
THE University of Manchester says it will invest £1bn over the next 10 years consolidating its campus at Oxford Road.
The first phase, costing £700m, will be delivered over the next six years and see the university move out of the former UMIST buildings around Sackville Street by 2018.
The engineering courses carried out at this site will be moved to a base close to the new graphene hub, as revealed by TheBusinesDesk.com last week.
There will also be new centres for the school of law and Manchester Business School, a major refurbishment of the university library, the Students’ Union and a new Medical School. There will also be investment in a Combined Heat and Power Facility, as well as a refurbishment of the telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire.
A further £300m will be spent between 2018-2022 creating a Biomedical Campus around the Stopford Building and refurbishments of the schools of Computer Science, Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics and Chemistry.
Director of estates and facilities Diana Hampson said: “Since the merger of the two universities in 2004, it has been our ambition to bring all of the academic activity together on a single site south of the Mancunian Way, which will improve efficiency, improve the student experience and reduce the University’s carbon footprint.
“This visionary building programme will give us one of the most modern campuses in the world, where the vast majority of our students will be studying in brand new or refurbished buildings.”
