The panellists that attended in person were able to enjoy the impressive view over the city from the seventh floor of the newly developed Block BD and those online joined from their preferred location.
Prof. Alastair Adair, PVC Greater Belfast Development, presented the vision for the new Belfast campus. The Panel reacted enthusiastically to the design of the new campus and the focus on light and open spaces.
Prof. Adair noted that the light design has been strongly influenced by the presence of the Belfast School of Art already resident at the Belfast campus.
Panellists expressed their concerns about whether there would be enough space in the new building compared to the Jordanstown campus and were reassured by Prof. Adair that although there will be less space, we will be using the available space in a more efficient way.
Many of the teaching rooms across all campuses have not been utilised efficiently and the upgraded timetabling software will help improve the space usage of the building.
Travel and Transport
Travel and Transport plans for the new Belfast campus were presented by Anne Doherty, Senior Project Manager - Estates Services.
The new Belfast campus is a car free campus, and the core objective of the project is to improve sustainable transport modes to and from campus through working in partnership with Translink NI, Department for the Economy, Sustran’s, Belfast City Council and many more.
Panellists were very interested in how the Belfast campus would be made more accessible for disabled students and the availability of parking spaces for students/staff who needed accessible parking.
Anne Doherty communicated that the accessible car park next to the new Belfast campus has 350 reserved parking spaces available for students and staff in need of accessible parking.
Parking spaces can be requested via a needs based assessment for both short and long term use.
The following suggestions came forth out of the discussion regarding the car free Belfast campus:
- Information regarding accessible parking and the needs based assessment should be available and shared with all potential students,
- extra accessible parking spaces on the streets aligning the university buildings and
- convenient drop of zones for students either with accessibility needs and for students who may need to drop off their equipment/supplies.
The Student Panel was also interested in the plans for the other campuses. Anne Doherty ensured members that there are also plans for improving sustainable travel to Magee in the future.
Another initiative soon to be launched is the Active Travel HUB is currently being trialled in Belfast and if successful will be rolled out to the other campuses.
Student Communication
The December Student Panel was concluded by Lara Truman, Student Communications Officer, who presented the student communications survey. Panellists were asked to take part and share with their peers.
Lara highlighted that the university is actively looking into how we can improve communication to our students on all campuses and want to ensure that we take the student voice into account while doing so.