Newcastle Business School

FAQ's

Detail Questions

1) What is City Campus East?
City Campus East is a new £70m development to Northumbria University’s estate and consists of two new buildings. The first building, a 16,000 sq m purpose built learning environment accommodation including classrooms, lecture theatres and exhibition space will house Newcastle Business School and the School of Law. The second is a 8,000 sq m building that will house the School of Design.

2) Why is there a need for a new building?
Over the past five years, Northumbria University has put a huge effort positioning itself to offer a distinctive brand and value for money.

We have gradually increased our A level offer to students to position the university in the right part of the Higher Education market, a major re-branding exercise was rolled out five years ago and we have established a distinctive market position in countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and China.

Over the coming years we expect an additional 3,000 full time students so there is an urgent need for more space for core teaching activities to be delivered.

The development of the new site will also have a benefit for all areas of the University. The erection of two new buildings to house three academic schools (Newcastle Business School, Law and Design) frees up considerable space on the city site, giving the other schools and services room to breathe, expand and move into, either permanently or temporarily while their current buildings are extensively refurbished and renovated.

3) Which schools are moving to new campus and why?
The Schools of Design, Law and Newcastle Business School will be moving in September 2007 and have been chosen for a number of reasons; namely their potential for future growth, strong student demand, current space constraints on the operation and the competitive position of each School.

Newcastle Business School (NBS)
NBS has strong demand for its services from international students and corporate clients and an associated requirement for appropriate facilities. The School has a high potential for growth and has few specialist or expensive space requirements and can jointly use space with the School of Law.

Law
Law has a strong student demand and is a high-quality provider with potential for growth as a professional provider. This growth is currently being restricted by space constraints.
The school uses its current space very efficiently and has few specialist requirements from a new build and provides efficiency in building use by being able to share classrooms and other facilities with NBS.

Design
The success of the alumni associated with the School of Design make it an international flagship for Northumbria. The School of Design enjoys strong student demand for its programmes and has good potential for future growth if current space constraints can be overcome.

4) How will moving to the new building affect me?
For everyone, moving to the new building will mean access to state of the art facilities and being part of an exciting stage of growth and development of Newcastle Business School and Northumbria University. For students your lectures and seminars will be running as usual but their location will have simply changed to the new building locations (details will be sent you about locations in due course).

5) Will there be any guided tours of the new building?
Induction and orientation sessions will be organised for all users of the building during September 2007. For students these details will be made available during enrolment.

6) How will I know where to report to come September and enrolment?
You will receive information from us before your course begins again in September of where to report to.

7) Is the building open to the public?
The building has been designed specifically to encourage use by students, staff and members of the general public. The ground floor will be open to the public who will be able to use the café facilities located there. Access to the other floors will be limited to staff and students working in the building via the use of an access control system operated by the use of a library card.

8) How secure is the new campus?
The access control referred to in the question above will limit the use of the building above the Ground Floor to the staff and students working there. In addition there will be a Security Office in the building that will occupy members of Northumbria’s security Team.

9) Will my fees go up as a result?
Over the past five years, Newcastle Business School has put a huge effort into positioning itself to offer a distinctive brand, based on competitive programmes, outstanding student support, and value for money. The fees that it charges are reflective of this market position. The fees for UK are students are set centrally by HEFCE.

Location

10) Where is the new building located?
The new building is just a stones throw away from the existing Northumbria University campus. A brand new footbridge will give you access from the existing campus over the motorway (A167M) leading right up to the front door of the new building! If travelling to the new building other than by foot however please see question below.

11) How can I get to the new building?
The new building is perfectly located for easy transportation links; whether it is by car, rail, or bus. If you are travelling by foot you can use the brand new footbridge which links the existing Northumbria University campus to the new building and makes the new building a few minutes walk from the current city campus.

Public Transport
The Manors metro and rail station is directly opposite the new building. For details relating to all forms of public transport please use the link to the journey planner below.

Car
The new building is located just off the A167, please click here for a map on the main Northumbria University website. City Campus East is building number 35.

Facilities Questions

12) What facilities will there be (IT, Café, bar, Library, showers etc)?
The new building has a multitude of facilities required of a modern learning environment. Please see the Floor Plans page for more details.

13) How accessible is the new building?
The new building has been developed to be fully compliant with all DDA and other building regulations.

14) Will there be parking on site?
One of the planning consents for the new building was that the University implemented a Green Travel Plan and a requirement of that plan was that there would be no increase in the number of spaces car parking spaces made available to staff and students across the whole of the campus. As a result of developing City Campus East the available car parking will now be split across the two sites.

Design and Build Questions

15) Who’s building the new campus development?
Sir Robert McAlpine is building the new development at a cost of £47 million. It is part of an entire programme of development for Northumbria University who is investing £103 million in its campus and facilities.

16) The building looks very futuristic, who designed it and why was that design chosen.
The brief for the design of the building was for an iconic, landmark building in Newcastle that provided a state of the art learning environment for Northumbria’s students.

17) What is the mesh on the front of the building and what’s the tower in the middle of the building?
The rectangular mesh on the building is an integral part of the design as part of the iconic look for the building but also to provide screening from sun’s glare and to stop the sun from overheating the rooms on the inside of the building.

The tower in the middle of the building is called a ‘Light well’. This impressive feature acts as a light tunnel allowing natural light into the building from the centre, reducing the need for artificial lighting within the 4 floors.

18) When will the new building be ready for occupation?
The new building will be ready for occupation for staff and students from September 2007.

Environmental Questions

19) I have heard that the new building is environmentally friendly, how?
Please see our Eco Facts section of this micro site.