News/ 01 June 2018

 

HEDQF West Country visit

On 7 and 8 March, the Forum visited the University of Plymouth on day one and then, on day two, the Penryn Campus in Cornwall which is the joint home of Falmouth and Exeter Universities.

The day at Plymouth included a presentation from host, Trevor Wills (Director of Estates), about the history of the university, facts about the city, and recent developments including the recently-adopted new masterplan for the Plymouth campus which signifies an investment programme of circa £250m. The campus tour included visits to – the Roland Levinsky Building which is a £34m award-winning facility for many arts disciplines, the Immersive Vision Theatre where delegates were taken on a planetarium-style experience to consider areas of current research including sustainability, the £19m Marine Building opened in 2012 as a high-technology research facility housing wave tanks and flumes, and The Rolle Building, opened in 2012 which is intensively used for teaching activity and offers spectacular views across the city.

Following a Trustee’s Board Meeting, dinner on Plymouth waterfront and an overnight stay, the study group took a coach to the Penryn campus. In the Tremough Innovation Centre, Dominic O’Neill (Head of Projects) gave a presentation on the successful creation of the campus 15 years ago describing the exciting developments that have occurred since that time. The current masterplan identifies further growth and visits were made to many facilities including those run by each university as well as those which are shared. These included the new renewable energy building (REEF), the AIR Building (Academy of Innovation & Research), the Daphne du Maurier Building, and the beautiful external spaces across the campus.

HEDQF is grateful to Trevor Wills and Jackie Lee of Plymouth University Estates Department for hosting and organising this visit and to Mace and Stride Treglown for their kind sponsorship.