University Executive Office relocation expected to cost £250,000
Changes to University House, including the movement of the University’s Executive Office – housing Vice Chancellor Stuart Croft and other senior university management – and learning grid this summer will cost £250,000, it has emerged.
This forms part of plans to make the senior management team “more accessible and visible to the student and staff community”; something Stuart Croft has said is achievable through “physical change to University House.”
The offices will take up half of the area currently occupied by the learning grid, meaning a new study space will be created on the ground floor to compensate. This is expected to be finalised by the Autumn term.
91 study spaces will be temporarily lost in the process, with 70 to be replaced on the ground floor and the final 21 in the library, which recently had its 24-hour status for next year confirmed by university management.
The work has been scheduled specifically to fit student needs. No work began until the end of the examinations to ensure students weren’t affected.
Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Policy
Work began on June 25, and the University have assured that there will be minimal student impact during the changes.
Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Policy for the University, commented: “The work has been scheduled specifically to fit student needs. No work began until the end of the examinations to ensure students weren’t affected.
“Numbers of postgraduates accessing the space are minimal over the summer vacation but we are working with the Library to provide communications to students when we know work may be noisy. We are also signposting those students to the Library and PG Hub which are open 08:00-00:00 every day.”
He finished: “We are also conscious that the week or so prior to submitting dissertations there will be an increase in numbers and we’re working with the contractors to ensure that their work acknowledges this. Again we’ll communicate this through Library and Student Portal channels and signpost people to the best spaces for them to work.”
The money allocated to this could far better be used in other places where the university is lacking – such as the outdated humanities building.
Charlotte Newbury, English and Creative Writing student
However, Warwick Students’ Union (SU) took issue with the estimated end price of the, project which the University allegedly decided to go ahead with in spite of SU objections.
The cost and loss of study space, however minor, also seemed to be concerns for some Warwick students reacting to the news.
Charlotte Newbury, an English and Creative Writing student going into her final year, commented: “It seems a badly thought-through decision on all fronts: limiting the study space we so badly need makes little sense in light of recent student complaints, and the money allocated to this could far better be used in other places where the university is lacking – such as the outdated humanities building.
Lewis Hutchinson, a History finalist, stated: “Accessibility and openness on the part of the senior team is of course desirable, but surely there are more financially viable ways of achieving this. Yet another non-academic big spend instead means the senior team feel as distant from us students as ever.”
Comments (1)
This whole thing is such a horrible, pointless publicity stunt. The Grid is losing 2000 books, careers and skills is losing a lot of student-facing space, and it’s not like mr. Croft is going to be any more sociable in the new location as he would have been at the old one. I doubt we’ll see any of the senior team using the gates on the ground floor like us mere mortals.