UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 28 JUNE 2018
Thousands of Birmingham staff and students have been given access to state-of-the-art sports equipment, laboratories and teaching space after a new £41 million university building was officially opened today (Thursday 28 June).
Birmingham City University has formally opened the multimillion pound expansion to its City South Campus in Edgbaston which will be home to its Health, Education and Life Sciences Faculty.
The 10,500 sq m space boasts a range of state-of-the-art facilities and industry standard sports equipment including an Environmental Chamber, used by elite athletes to replicate the experience of exercising in extreme conditions such as sub-zero temperatures, up to 5,000 metres altitude or in desert heats.
It also includes a new sports hall, a sports therapy clinic, nutrition science labs, subject specific classrooms equipped with the latest teaching technology and a biomedical engineering lab.
To mark the opening University Vice-Chancellor Professor Philip Plowden unveiled a blue plaque recognising the location’s historic connection with acclaimed physicist Sir Oliver Lodge.
The plaque celebrates the fact that the site was formerly home to pioneering scientist Lodge who served as the University of Birmingham’s first Principal between 1900 and 1920.
The unveiling took place in front of a range of invited guests including Edgbaston MP Preet Gill, teachers from local schools and colleges, and healthcare professionals.
Professor Philip Plowden, Vice-Chancellor at Birmingham City University, said: “It gives me great pleasure to have formally opened this new building which will provide state-of-the-art facilities for thousands of our staff and students.
“It is also pleasing that after working alongside the Civic Society we were able to unveil a commemorative plaque which recognises the site’s long educational heritage as the former home of the pioneering physicist Sir Oliver Lodge.”
Visitors were given a tour of the new facilities and treated to demonstrations of some of the new equipment which has been fitted in the new building.
The move paves the way for the former Perry Barr home for the University’s Health, Education and Life Sciences Faculty to be converted into the athletes’ village following Birmingham’s successful bid to host the 2020 Commonwealth Games.
Edgbaston MP Preet Gill who helped open the new facility said: “I am proud to have opened this magnificent building. The state-of-the-art facilities and equipment will enable staff and students to carry out important work, and ensure Birmingham City University continues to be a centre of excellence.”
The official opening comes days after local football team Kidderminster Harriers were given pre-season testing by the University’s Sport and Exercise experts in the new building’s sports labs as part of a new partnership.