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Work starts on £17m campus showpiece

Senior health officials joined students and staff to mark the start of a £17m development.

The showpiece dental education and practice facility and sports therapy complex will provide a state-of-the-art teaching and learning environment for students studying a range of subjects including dental nursing and technology, dental hygiene and sports therapy. Vice Chancellor, Professor Graham Henderson, was joined by Mr Ian Dalton, Chief Executive of the NHS North East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) at a ceremony to mark the official start of construction work on the site.

º£½ÇÖ±²¥ has the cutting edge Mr Dalton said: 'I’m really pleased to be at this event on behalf of the NHS.

'The University of º£½ÇÖ±²¥ has an outstanding reputation for the training and education of health care professionals and I firmly believe this new development will keep it at the cutting edge for many years to come.'

Professor Henderson added that he was delighted to see work underway on the new Centuria South Building, which will be linked to the existing School of Health & Social Care main building.

'The new development will not only support our fast-growing provision in Health & Social Care and Sports Therapy but also allow us, for the first time, to deliver programmes for dental therapists and dental nurses.

'It will be a first class addition both to the University campus and the whole Tees Valley and I am very much looking forward to welcoming our first students in 2010. I’m also delighted that Ian Dalton was able to join us for this important and symbolic event.'

Also attending was Kamini Shah, consultant in Dental Public Health at Stockton PCT; Sean Bradley, Dental Adviser at the Tees PCTs’ and Malcolm Smith, Acting Postgraduate Dental Dean at the Northern Deanery. A number of students representing the School of Health & Social Care and the School of Social Sciences & Law were also there with their Deans, Professor Paul Keane (Health & Social Care) and Mrs Liz Barnes (Social Sciences & Law). The new facility will be shared by both academic faculties. Building to be complete in 16 months The main building contract, worth £11.2m before VAT, has been awarded to local construction company Morgan Ashurst. The total development cost of the project is £17.2m including VAT, equipment and fittings. The NHS North East Strategic Health Authority is contributing £1.3m to the new dental facility and the building will take about 16 months to complete. The building has been designed to be energy efficient with low carbon emissions.

The four-storey, 4.200sq metre development, to be called Centuria South, is due to open in time for start of the 2010 academic year. It will also include sports therapy facilities, a series of laboratories and biomechanic and hydrotherapy facilities, plus general teaching rooms and academic offices. The dental suite will have 20 dental chairs and practice ‘phantom heads’ and the facility will help to address the skills shortage in dental services in the region.

The building will be designed by CPMG architects, who designed the recently completed Phoenix and Athena Buildings on the University campus.

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