With building work on University Centre Warrington’s new town centre locations now in full swing, we went for a behind-the-scenes look at how the work is progressing and to find out more about the location and new facilities for students.
Central location
Our first stop was the University’s Time Square premises, just a six-minute walk from Warrington Central train station and right in the heart of Time Square, Warrington’s new shopping and leisure development. With shops, bars, cafes and restaurants literally on the doorstep, there’s plenty to do in between and after classes and lectures.
University Centre Warrington Jan 2022-2.jpg
This location will also be home to Chester Students’ Union in Warrington – there to support and represent students, plus hook you up with student deals and opportunities to get involved in the local social scene and wider community. We look forward to hearing more updates from Sam, the Students’ Union’s VP for Warrington, over the coming months.
Town centre hub
Time Square will be the central hub for the University in Warrington, with an information point open to both students and members of the community, alongside an innovative Digital Learning Centre (DLC) offering a technology-rich learning environment with on-site specialists who can provide ICT and study skills support.
Time Square ground floor reception - artist's impression.jpg
Time Square ground floor reception - Jan 2022.jpg
Students will benefit from bookable learning spaces with laptops and digital resources, plus breakout spaces for seminars. The student hub on the first floor is taking shape, and promises to be a great place for socialising, relaxing and studying in between classes.
Time Square student hub - artist's impression.jpg
Time Square student hub - Jan 2022 - Copy.jpg
Work on the ‘TED Talk space’ for talks and lectures is also coming on apace, with the tiered wooden seating starting to take shape.
Immersive learning
A great benefit of starting from scratch with a new location is that, well, the sky’s the limit! The new site has been co-designed with students and aims to combine the very best of our experience with existing subject-specialist facilities, while building on the University’s ‘digital first’ approach and collaborations between different subject areas. An example of this is the new immersive suite, complete with 4D capabilities and immersive projection for floors and walls, which will be used to provide an immersive learning environment for practical sessions across all course areas – for example, transforming the space into an Early Years classroom for Teaching students, a ward simulation for Nursing students, or a crime scene for our Policing students.
Dedicated teaching spaces
Just five minutes’ walk away from Time Square is Remond House, a dedicated site for most of Warrington’s teaching provision, with more brand-new, specialist teaching spaces for our Health and Social Care, Education and Policing courses in Warrington. Work is progressing well and we look forward to sharing more updates on these as the build progresses.
