A major milestone in the Student Centre project has occurred - Balfour Beatty, the main contractors, have handed over the keys to the University.

Now this has happened, the next phase of activity will begin, transforming the Student Centre from a new state of the art building into a centre of the many and varied students' experiences at Sussex. These are exciting and fast paced times, and as developments progress more updates will be shared with colleagues. 

Thank you to the Project’s Team and Student Connectors for supporting and leading the Service Delivery Planning day on the 10 December 2021.

It was great to see services from across the University collaborating with each other and working with the student connectors to map the events and activities which will be delivered from the Student Centre from April 2022.

See below for highlights of activity over the last few weeks:

Provost visits the Student Centre site

 We’ve had a lot of visitors to the Student Centre site, including the new Provost Rachel Mills who tweeted about her visit:

Excited to see the fit out of our new #student centre (opening spring 2022) @balfourbeatty @SussexUni @ADPArchitecture pic.twitter.com/ynZO2V2jmJ

— Rachel Mills (@RachelAnnMills) October 25, 2021

Rachel is chairing the sustainability committee, working with colleagues to create a Sustainable Sussex and supporting our community's contributions to COP26 and beyond. The Student Centre reflects the Sussex’s commitment to sustainability, with increased energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact integral to the design.

Creating a sensory garden

A beautiful design feature in the Student Centre is its internal courtyard, which will include a fully accessible sensory garden, with a variety of plants, seating and a pagoda with climbing roses and jasmine.  This area is designed to be a peaceful place where students can relax and enjoy their surroundings.  

The building fit out itself is almost complete. Most of the decoration has been done, bespoke furnishings, including the sectional Welcome Desk, have been installed. It is now a fully functioning building, and staff members are being trained on how to use the various systems. 

We look forward to providing more exciting updates.