The work to change the six storey building kicked off in May,
when builders moved in to construct the walls on the 4th and 5th
floors, which until now have been empty while the centre has got
off the ground. These two floors will provide a home primarily for
the London Academy of Diplomacy and the Norwich Business School
(NBS), University of East Anglia (UEA).
This September, NBS will be running three MSc programmes in
addition to the MBA and MA programmes that it has been running at
the London centre over the last year. In another first for an INTO
centre, NBS will also be running a three year undergraduate
business degree in London. The Academy of Diplomacy will also be
continuing to build up their range of postgraduate courses within
the new space that is available. Around 250 undergraduate and
postgraduate students will be studying at the London campus from
this September, growing to around 600 at capacity.
The new layout on the top floors of the building includes office
space for NBS and the Academy and creates 11 new classrooms, an
additional 150 seat lecture theatre, a masters resource centre, a
40 seat multimedia room and an exclusive masters lounge. While the
University will predominately use the space for teaching the degree
programmes, there will be some INTO pathway classes taking place on
the floors to encourage integration between the groups of
students.
Meanwhile, other changes are taking place in the building too.
INTO St George's, University of London (INTO SGUL) are taking
possession of the third floor ahead of the arrival of their first
foundation students in the next few weeks. They will share the
floor with INTO's group headquarters and also the café, which is
moving up from the first floor. The space that was previously taken
by the café will now be used to extend the Centre's Learning
Resource Centre, creating an additional 32 more study spaces, as
well as further administration and teaching preparation space to
accommodate INTO UEA London's growing staff.
Why not take a tour of some of the new
changes?
Martin Halsall, Chief Operations Officer for London, said, "It
is a very exciting time for the London campus. The new floors will
allow more students to be taught by UEA at the London Campus and
allows us to deepen our relationship with the University. It's
great news too for our reputation for diversity - particularly the
masters programmes - and it has created a real buzz amongst the
staff. It also offers an attractive progression route for the
pathways students who study at INTO UEA London after finishing a
foundation or diploma course and I hope that many of our students
will want to continue their studies at UEA London."
"It's also great to be using all of the space of the building",
he added. "It's astonishing to think that less than two years ago
there were no students here! By January 2012 we should have 1200
students studying in the London Centre."