President visits student residences being built in Fallowfield

09 Jul 2018

Nancy pleased to see our student village is progressing rapidly

Simon Merrywest, Helen McGlashan, Steve Jordan and Nancy Rothwell

Our President and Vice-Chancellor Nancy Rothwell visited the site of new student residences being built at Fallowfield by Vinci UK.

Before touring the site, Nancy watched a presentation which included artist impressions of the new accommodation, which will provide 1,122 study bedrooms in clusters of ten across eight stand-alone blocks and an amenity hub providing social and study spaces.

The residences – to be opened in September 2019 – will be set in newly-landscaped areas that will be enjoyed by students while providing accessible routes across the site, which will be harmonised across the wider site by further landscaping and signage.

The brand new en suite accommodation on a popular residential campus will be a key aid to our recruitment for the 2019 cycle and beyond.

The build is now back on track thanks to the hard work of the University’s project team and Vinci UK who have been appointed to complete the work after the demise of the original contractor, Carillion.

Vinci UK also faced the challenge of construction activity in a live residential campus environment. This meant minimising disruption to existing campus operations and the student experience, including Residences, Sport Manchester, Armitage Centre, pitches, Chancellors Hotel and Botanical Gardens.

Nancy was welcomed on site by Director for the Student Experience Simon Merrywest, Director of Residential and Sport Services Helen McGlashan, Assistant Director of Estates and Head of Capital Projects Steve Jordan, University Capital Projects Manager Russell Dyson, Head of Accommodation Planning Paul Uncles and Head of Facilities Management Fiona Day, along with John Roberts, Regional Director, and Peter Dodd, Senior Project Manager, both of Vinci UK.

She said: “I enjoyed seeing what the accommodation will look like and it was good to see that the project is on track.

“Our teams from Directorates of Student Experience and Estates and Facilities are working hard to ensure that we not only offer our students high quality accommodation, but we also provide them with welcoming community and study spaces for them to enjoy and share with their peers – a very important part of our student experience.”