Warwick’s California Campus sees development

The City Council of Roseville, in Placer County, California have unanimously voted to allow Warwick University to convert several properties into a graduate school in a decision made on Wednesday 16 November.

The University Development Foundation (UDF), the organisation partnering with Warwick to realise this project, can now negotiate the purchase of the buildings which includes a 42,000 square foot fire-station.

By 2018 the University plans to begin teaching a number of postgraduate courses from the new location in Roseville, the largest city in Placer County.

This is the first step towards Warwick’s long term goal of an undergraduate California campus, with 6000 students by 2031.

The campus will be built a few miles from the graduate school on 1,159 acres of land, donated by the family of property developer Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, President and CEO of the UDF.

It is thought the development of the Roseville Graduate School would allow Warwick to establish a presence in California, while continuing work its first international campus.

Warwick University stated in September that the first postgraduate teaching would be offered in interim accommodation before the establishment of a definite location for the graduate school in the future.

Warwick Professor Seán Hand, who was appointed as Dean of the Californian Graduate School in July, said: “The more we’ve examined, the more we’re excited about that precise location, to the extent that we would envisage that not as being something transitory, but actually being a permanent feature of Warwick in California.”

Roseville City Manager, Rob Jensen, told the Press Tribune: “They (Warwick) need to get a flag in the ground. They want people to know they’re here.”

Bob Hogg, Director of Business Development at Warwick and the Project Director leading the Warwick in California team, reportedly told the council last Wednesday: “We want to be one of the top universities in the United States, and we want to start that journey here in Roseville.”