Huge University Task In Building, Finance Plans

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30038, 24 January 1963, Page 12

Huge University Task In Building, Finance Plans

The Canterbury University Council, its principal executive officers, and senior academic staff have already embarked on the busiest year in their history though the university session will not begin till March. They are planning requirements for the new university at Ham which may be worth more than £6 million when the major transfer occurs about 1970 and, at the same time, pre* paring claims for the next quinquennial grant which may exceed £5 million.

With the new £1.5 million engineering school almost fully commissioned and the new £3 million science school well above ground level, attention is now being given to space schedules for at least four more major buildings to house the library, arts, law, commerce, and music, and the main administrative offices.

Preliminary planning of this third and major stage of the transfer began as long ago as 1959, and proposals have reached a stage when all these sections have to be asked to justify precise allocations of space for submission to the University Grants Committee.

The library block will be the most important as it will take the main university book stock as it stands in 1970 plus, probably most of the faculties of arts, law and commerce. Music is likely to be separately housed. Administration will also have special offices. But as the library stock grows it will displace the teaching departments in the block which should have their own permanent quarters by 1975. A very large lecture theatre block to be shared by many departments is another key feature of the scheme. Scheme for 1970 The total cost of the additional provisions for 1970 could be between nearly £2 million and, with the later stages, more than £3 million.

“Space scheduling in the planning stage now reached involves estimates of great detail,” said the vicechancellor (Dr. L. L. Pownall). “We must estimate the number of students in each department, in each course, in each subject, in each laboratory class, in each seminar, and in each tutorial session up to 1975. We must calculate the number of hours teaching at every level and the number of streams in each laboratory." Dr. Pownall said he hoped to have final figures “in a month or two.”

The university is still working on the big Student Union building, sketch plans of which await the approval of the University Grants Committee. Staff of 1000

Requirements for a staff refectory adjoining the Student Union are also under consideration. “In the 1970’s we will have a staff of 1000 at Ham, many of whom are likely to have meals on the campus,” said Dr. Pownall. The university council is also planning its own halls of residence in addition to the church halls already projected. It is hoped some of them will be ready by the time the science school is occupied in 1965-70. Ultimately the university plans to have five or six of its own halls each taking 400 students with separate dining rooms for each 100 students

served by a common system of kitchens.

Workshops for the maintenance of £6 million worth of buildings plus their equipment are another early requirement.

Major indoor recreational facilities are also being planned. Work has already started in plans to modify and reallocate central site buildings vacated by many departments of science in 1965.

Quinquennial Grant On top of this huge building programme, the university this year must make its case for the quinquennial grant to cover the years 1965 to 1969. This case must be before the University Grants Committee by the end of June. These submissions must state the precise requirements of all students and staff in teaching, equipment needed, salaries, mainenance, everything except major capital works for five years. Expenditure in the last year of the present quinquennium (1964) wiH probably exceed £1 million for the first time. For 1965 to 1969 these annual requirements are likely to rise steeper still.