Perry Barr is a suburb of Birmingham ¨C about three miles north of the city centre ¨C that hosts a greyhound track, the Birmingham Brummies speedway team and the M6 motorway.
Until now, it has also been the main home of Birmingham City University. But a move from Perry Barr is under way ¨C in the face of fierce opposition from some in the area ¨C as the university shifts from eight campuses scattered across Birmingham to two new principal sites on the city centre¡¯s eastern fringe, where there is a major regeneration project to create a ¡°learning quarter¡±.
Birmingham City¡¯s ?180?million development is a transformative change for an institution that started life as the City of Birmingham Polytechnic when five colleges merged in 1971, became the University of Central England in 1992 and was renamed Birmingham City in 2007.
Cliff Allan, the vice-chancellor, said the development ¡°demonstrates the kind of university we are trying to be ¨C which is one without walls, having close interaction with business and industry¡±.
É«ºÐÖ±²¥
The first phase of the move is the Parkside Building, which opened last summer. It is home to two of the university¡¯s key areas of strength: the School of Media and the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), an institution established by the city¡¯s industrialists in 1843.
Facilities at the site include four TV studios and two production studios, which will be used by students and industry. Birmingham City says the building offers the ¡°largest university broadcast centre in the UK¡± and the ¡°largest green-screen studio in the UK¡± ¨C a type of studio used to film special effects scenes.
É«ºÐÖ±²¥
Chris O¡¯Neil, executive dean of BIAD, said the university was ¡°talking to one of the UK¡¯s major TV channels to produce a national programme from the facility, with students working as technicians¡±.
The second phase of the development is scheduled to open in 2015, hosting all student support services as well as business, law, social science and English.
¡°The intention is that by 2017 we will have vacated Perry Barr in its entirety,¡± Professor Allan said.
From the upper floors of the Parkside Building, the location¡¯s potential is clear. Across the road is the railway line that will be the future route of HS2, the new high-speed rail network. Trains will terminate at a new Curzon Street station, creating a gateway to the city just a short walk from the university.
Being in the city centre close to all this major regeneration ¡°makes BCU¡¯s offer much more attractive¡±, said Professor Allan, a former head of teaching and learning policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, who took over at Birmingham City in December 2012.
The university¡¯s neighbours in the Eastside learning quarter will be Aston University (with which it tried to merge in 2003) and Birmingham Metropolitan College, another big provider of higher education.
And across the railway is the area of Digbeth, which Professor Allan described as Birmingham¡¯s ¡°creative and digital industry quarter¡± ¨C and whose proximity the university considers to be a major asset.
The vice-chancellor said that he was confident about the university¡¯s future in the emerging higher education market ¨C given that its specialisms offer particular attractions to students ¨C and said that the number of applications was growing.
É«ºÐÖ±²¥
¡°That enables us to be a bit more selective in terms of who we are accepting,¡± said Professor Allan, who is comfortable with, and indeed planning for, a small drop in student numbers.
É«ºÐÖ±²¥
Not everyone shares the vice-chancellor¡¯s enthusiasm about relocating. Some people have opposed Birmingham City¡¯s move, with disquiet even spawning one campaign group called ¡°Give Perry Barr a Chance¡±. In 2012, Perry Barr¡¯s Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood, said the university¡¯s departure would be ¡°an economic and social disaster¡± for the area.
Professor Allan said that the university intended to ¡°make sure that the site we vacate is put to good development use¡±.
He argued that the move made sense because the focus of Birmingham¡¯s cultural and creative industries is in the city centre. But Professor Allan also conceded that ¡°of course there is a feeling of real sadness in departing Perry Barr¡±.
In numbers
?180m - the cost of Birmingham City University¡¯s new campus development
Campus news
University of Glasgow
Twelve Scottish universities are supporting the establishment of a new centre to develop sensor and imaging systems for business by bringing together academics working on the technology. The ?10?million CENSIS
hub, launched on 14?January, is initially based at the University of Glasgow but it will move into a new home in the city centre in the spring.
Bangor University
Putting health warning messages directly on cigarettes increases significantly smokers¡¯ willingness to quit, researchers have found. Academics from Bangor University¡¯s Business School made the finding after giving smokers cigarettes that displayed warnings that each one would shorten their life expectancy by an average of 11 minutes. The researchers believe the study is timely as tobacco companies are being forced by plain packaging laws to shift branding on to the sticks themselves.
Bath Spa University
A lecturer in creative writing has won a prestigious book award. Nathan Filer, a graduate of Bath Spa University¡¯s MA in creative writing course who now lectures for the institution part time, scooped the 2013 Costa First Novel Award on 6?January.
His novel, The Shock of the Fall, published last May, details a man¡¯s descent into mental illness.
University of Bristol
Researchers from three institutions have uncovered the factors that determine how often and how violently volcanoes erupt. Academics from the University of Bristol, the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the University of Savoy in France used modelling and statistical techniques to carry out more than 1.2?million simulations to identify key factors in the frequency of volcanic activity and the amount of magma released. The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
University of Manchester
Research suggests that a little-remembered group of Jewish intellectuals who met in the coffee houses of Berlin, Vienna and Prague in the late 19th and early 20th centuries drove the thinking that ¡°spawned post-1945 European unity¡±. The findings come from work by Cathy Gelbin, senior lecturer in German studies at the University of Manchester, who is exploring German archival material alongside eminent US cultural and literary historian Sander Gilman for an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded study. The work suggests that those intellectuals were among the first to identify themselves as Europeans.
University of Bedfordshire
Staff at one university could have been forgiven for thinking that they had lost their bearings when they returned to work after the Christmas break. A?12m boiler house chimney that had dominated the Bedford campus of the University of Bedfordshire for five decades was demolished last month as part of a ?25?million redevelopment programme. The university described the chimney¡¯s removal as ¡°the end of an era¡±.
City University London
A London university¡¯s law school is to hold free legal advice sessions for members of the public. Students at City University London will work with qualified lawyers to provide free guidance on issues including personal injury claims, employment, small claims, landlord and tenant disputes and consumer rights. Sarwan Singh, senior lecturer at the school, said the programme was ¡°a great example of lawyers of the future participating in their local community¡±.
É«ºÐÖ±²¥
University of Brighton
An institution in southeast England has been named the leader of a Europe-wide research project into youth unemployment. The University of Brighton will work with 25 research partners and 60 organisations on the €5?million (?4.14?million) project. The three-and-a-half year programme will begin in March and look at the mismatch between education and skills and the labour market.
Register to continue
Why register?
- Registration is free and only takes a moment
- Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
- Sign up for our newsletter
Subscribe
Or subscribe for unlimited access to:
- Unlimited access to news, views, insights & reviews
- Digital editions
- Digital access to °Õ±á·¡¡¯²õ university and college rankings analysis
Already registered or a current subscriber? Login