University’s new Learning Resource Centre opens for business
The learning environment for thousands of students at the University of Chichester has improved with the opening of a new building on its Bognor Regis Campus.
A new Learning Resource Centre (LRC) marks the completion of the latest stage of a multi-million pound development project for the site.
The new two-storey building will hold some 70,000 books and has around 100 subscriptions to journals, as well as DVDs, dissertations, and a musical theatre collection. There is also a classroom resource collection, which allows trainee teachers to borrow an array of materials relating to the national curriculum for use in their classrooms, including puppets, educational toys, children’s fiction books and posters.
The building is part of a wider redevelopment project for the Bognor Regis Campus, which included the refurbishment of The Dome as a state-of-the-art business school that opened in 2011. Construction on the new Learning Resource Centre began in November 2010 when Vice Chancellor Professor Clive Behagg conducted the ground-breaking ceremony. The two projects were funded by a grant of over £8million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).
The new LRC is designed as a low-energy and low-carbon building to achieve a BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) score of “excellent”; among its many interesting features is a roof-top garden, which it is hoped will contribute to the stimulating learning environment.
The University’s Head of Library Services, Anna O’Neill, said: “I think one of the key aspects of the new LRC is that it provides a stimulating learning environment. As we train teachers there, they can use this example of a multi-functioning, interactive learning space when considering the learning environment for the children they will teach. The new LRC also generates a more sophisticated attitude, which should appeal to our business and management students.”
The building will be officially opened later in 2012
