Wednesday 3 December 2008

Planning for the New Centre

Planning for the new centre is moving along to schedule and we have been looking at the equipment needs for each of the areas in the newly refurbished centre. The floors will each have a different feel and have different types of provision resulting in a single centre where all students’ support needs can be met:

The ground floor of the Aldham Robarts building will be based around a Welcome desk and triage area, along with a variety of student study spaces and a transaction counter where students can consult staff and hand in assignments. There will also be dedicated student PCs, as well as areas for laptops and other mobile learning devices to be used. In addition students will be able to make use group study rooms, a seminar room and the LRC short loan collection.

The lower ground floor will contain learning resources and facilities including books and journals, the LRC slide collection, a media viewing area and the special collections and archives reading area. In addition the lower ground floor will offer 3 seminar rooms, group study rooms and a café area as well as plenty of student PCs, study space and casual seating.

The remaining floors of the Aldham Robarts LRC and the first floor of the Aquinas building will contain the majority of the books, journals and PCs, as well as new group study rooms, quiet study areas and consultation areas.

We are using Blackboard to share the detailed information with the staff involved in the project, and we have been busy populating that with various files.

The next part of the project is to collate all the detail so that we are in a position to go out to tender.

Friday 17 October 2008

Aldham Robarts Project - New Student Centre


Development of a New Student Centre


A refurbishment programme is being carried out at the Aldham Robarts LRC, which is linked to a major change programme to enhance the student experience. The refurbishment will update the LRC and will also provide the opportunity to bring all student facing services into one building.

This programme of change offers an exciting opportunity to provide student focussed and professional services from one campus location, incorporating flexible social learning facilities in a 24/7 environment. By bringing services offered by the LRCs and the Campus centres into one space we aim to provide a seamless and intuitive service, with staff helping people to navigate their way to the specialist support they may need. The new Centre will provide flexible, student owned space, services and technologies, which will allow students far more choice as to how they make use of our services. In brief the Centre will include:


Ground floor:
A Welcome Team hub dealing with all immediate enquiries and providing a referral and appointments service
Social learning facilities (as piloted at the Avril Robarts LRC) and including flexible space, support in the use of mobile technology – including lap top loans, refreshments and group study areas.
A transaction area to seek help with IT, fee payments, submission of coursework.
Mobile staff support, with rooms for one-to-one meetings as needed.


Other floors:
Private space for welfare and counselling support
Printed books and other learning materials
Equipment to support learning and teaching
Silent study facilities


We would really like to hear about what you think of the proposals for the Aldham Robarts project and would welcome any comments you wish to make.