Learning spaces

The Forum will bring together new learning spaces alongside a Student Services Centre, Retail, catering and refurbished library facilities. The mixture of spaces has been carefully considered to ensure that the environment is innovative and yet practical for day-to-day university life.

Auditorium 

The new 400 seat Auditorium will provide the largest teaching space in the university, reducing the need to teach the same class multiple times. High quality audio and projection equipment will be fitted as well as videoconferencing and lecture capture (Echo360) facilities. To allow for more flexible teaching, the seating design allows participants to turn and easily hold discussions with others. The seats are also fully networked and have individual power supplies and will be able to support online exams.

Performance art and music is also well catered for in the Auditorium. A state of the art Assisted Reverberation System has been fitted to ensure that music and speech can be heard clearly from any of the 400 seats.

Exploration Labs

There will be two, 60-seat Exploration Labs, supported by a six seat, IT-rich 'Technology' centre. One Exploration Lab will provide 60 tablet PCs using bespoke, fixed, raked seating arranged in 'Harvard' style to allow attendees to mix presented content with IT solutions. This room will also have full video conferencing facilities. The second lab will consist of 10, six person multi-touch 'surface tables' designed to support innovative, group-based teaching. Each table will also be linked to a series of wall-mounted screens to assist sharing of ideas and there will be writeable walls to aid collaboration of ideas. This provision is particularly innovative and will be a world leader in the Higher Education sector. Adoption of surface technology in the commercial sector continues to expand quickly, creating a potential for employability benefits to our students.

Seminar Block 

As well as the Library refurbishment, Alumni Auditorium and Exploration Labs, 12 seminar rooms equipped with sound and projection facilities will be provided (pictured above from outside). Flexible walls are being used to get the most from the space, for group work, teaching or giving presentations.  For events some of the moveable partition walls can be removed or some of the spaces can be used for an increased provision of quiet study areas, effectively extending the library during exam revision periods.

Study Spaces

Not only will there be more spaces to use your laptop on campus but secure laptop lockers will make life on campus easier for all. More than 130 new spaces are being created within The Street (the central Atrium area of the Forum) and breakout areas alone, all of which are covered by high speed Wi-Fi as well as wired power and data points.