Opening of the Innovation Space at Booth Street East

07 Mar 2024

Three floors of new facilities to help us provide blended, flexible and accessible learning to our communities

We are delighted to announce the opening of our new Flexible Learning Innovation Space at Booth Street East. An exciting space which will not only offer a range of offices and teaching areas but also study spaces, a hyflex teaching space, podcasting studios, and VR experience pods.

As a university that is focused on providing blended, flexible and accessible learning to our communities, this space will help us to deliver that goal.

Additionally, this will be the first zero emissions building using heating generated from air source heat pumps and so this opening is also a prime example of our ongoing commitment to creating a sustainable future as stated within our strategy 'Our Future' and our environmental sustainability strategy, where we have set a target to reduce our emissions to net zero by 2050.

When is the building open from?

From the week commencing Monday, 11 March 2024 – staff on the Flexible Learning Programme and in Educational Development will have access their offices in the building from this date, with the rest of the building being completed by the end of March.

What is the space?

The Ground floor is predominantly managed by Central Teaching and Learning who offer space for students such as the Tech Playground, the hyflex space, and two lecture theatres.

The 1st floor is shared between the Media Service and FLP teams with rooms such as the Lifelong Learning suite, the Virtual Reality suite, and a Breakout space which are all available for staff to book.

The 2nd floor houses the Educational Development team and Flexible Learning team offices with capacity for over 100 people. This includes shared office spaces, a large communal space, and a selection of meeting rooms, this floor is design to enable effective teamwork.

The 3rd floor will become additional office space for university staff and the 4th floor will be a dedicated space for commuter students.

How can people find out more?

At an exciting Flexible Learning Innovation Space launch event! We will be running a launch event for staff and students on Thursday, 9 May – more details to follow. The day is expected to include the recording of live podcasts, XR demos, and facility tours.