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First turf cut for new £6.4m Student Services Centre – University of Reading

A ceremony to signal the start of work on the University of Reading's new £6.4m Student Services Centre is being held on Tuesday 11 July. Former Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the University The Rt Hon the Lord Carrington will cut the first turf. The new Centre will bring together all of the University's welfare, careers and student support functions into a state-of-the-art building that, together with the new extension to the adjacent Students' Union, will provide a focus for student support on campus. It will be named the Carrington Building in honour of The Rt Hon the Lord Carrington, Chancellor of the University since 1992. In a bid to help achieve the University's long-term aim of reducing its impact on the environment wherever possible, the new building will feature an environmentally-friendly geothermal system, which provides heating in winter and cooling in summer. Professor Gordon Marshall, the University's Vice-Chancellor, said: "The University is justifiably proud of its long tradition of providing a supportive framework to enable its students to make the most of their experience at Reading, and an opportunity now presents itself to manage these services in a more coherent and accessible way. "2006 marks the University's 80th anniversary and as we celebrate eight decades of excellence it seems fitting that work begins on a new Student Services Centre that will help us extend the high quality of the facilities we provide for students in the future." Located between the Palmer Building and the Students' Union on the Whiteknights campus, the Centre will house the Disability Office, Accommodation, Student Financial Support, Student Services, an IT Help Desk, the Careers Advisory Service and Centre for Career Management Skills, the Centre for the Development of Teaching & Learning, the Study Advisers and some elements of the Counselling Service. The contemporary design and purpose-built accommodation also includes two new high-tech teaching rooms, and meeting facilities together with student browsing and social areas. For the first time on campus, the construction will incorporate environmentally-friendly ground-source heat pumps which make use of latent heat from deep underground to warm the building. Designed by Stride Treglown Ltd (who are also the architects of a parallel project to extend the Students' Union), construction begins in July 2006 and is due to be finished in time for the beginning of the Autumn Term in 2007. end Notes for editors 1. Lord Carrington has been Chancellor of the University of Reading since 1992. A leading politician for the Conservative Party, he has served as Secretary of State for Defence (1970-74), Chairman of the Conservative Party (1972-74), Secretary of State for Energy (1974) and Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs (1979-82). He also served as Secretary-General of NATO from 1984-88. 2. The schedule for the event on Tuesday 11 July will be as follows: 12.00 Guests arrive at Students' Union 3Sixty Club 12.30 Welcome by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gordon Marshall, followed by a short speech from the President of the Students' Union, Mr Dave Lewis 12.45 Lord Carrington will say a few words and then cut the first turf 13.00 A buffet lunch will be served in the Students' Union 3Sixty Club and outside (weather permitting) 14.00 Guests depart A map of the Whiteknights campus can be found at this link: http://www.info.rdg.ac.uk/maps/maps-display.asp The Students' Union (building 29) is in square C5. 3. Photographers and reporters wishing to attend the event should contact Craig Hillsley, University Press Officer T: 0118 378 7388 E: c.hillsley@rdg.ac.uk