Bold Planning For Ilam University

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 27 (Supplement)

Bold Planning For Ilam University

The imposing complex of buildings that is rising and planned on the 160-acre University of Canterbury site at Ham will represent an expenditure of more than £l2m on construction alone as the work proceeds over the next 15 years. Canterbury University College was founded in 1873 with a roll of about 500 students. Today, that number has risen to 4000, and by 1975, the roll may be as high as 8000. Bold planning was needed to meet the upsurge in higher education.

Ham is the biggest building project undertaken in New Zealand in the past decade. The choice of Ham, three miles from the city centre, was not without controversy, but this new site gives the university room to breathe and grow. Canterbury University College was part of the University of New Zealand until it took the name of University of Canterbury in 1957 and gained full autonomy in 1962. The university now grants its own degrees in most subjects except medicine and dentistry. First section of the university to move to Ham was the School of Engineering, which has been working there for more than 10 years in a £1.25m home. The School of Fine Arts has also been at Ilam for some years,

but in a temporary home. There has been a delay in the completion of the science block, to cost £3m, but some departments have already moved in and will do so progressively until the whole move is completed in 1970. The liberal arts and the university library will be housed in a £4m building, a School of Forestry has been approved for construction soon, and a School of Architecture is planned to work with the School of Fine Arts. In addition to those planned by the university itself, there will be three church halls of residence, and a hall, chapel and gymnasium. The expanse of the site enables these huge buildings to be accommodated in an imaginative lay-out of green fields and open spaces. The old Stead home at Ham, noted for its azaleas, rhododendrons and fine

trees, has been preserved, extensive playing fields and attractive landscaping to go with the two streams that cross the property. The multi-coloured stonework of the engineering school face a spacious quadrangle, while the liberal arts and library block will be set round courtyards and pools. The fresh start at Ilam has enabled the university to re-equip with the latest teaching and research aids. Ham had one of New Zealand’s first digital computers, to which additions are now being made. A sub-critical nuclear reactor has been installed. The university comes close to the community in many of its activities—through adult education courses in a host of subjects, through its School of Music and in specialised services for business and commerce. In the industrial field, the

universsity plays a unique role. Its Industrial Development Section, an outcome of wartime research on radar, undertakes a host of investi-

gations of direct benefit to industry, solving its problems, and pointing the way to better, more economic processes.