IN DEPTH
Strategy and foresight at heart of new student centre
Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost of Library Services talks to Information Professional about UCL’s new Student Centre and how it will help UCL meet its strategic goals for the foreseeable future.
LAST month saw the opening of UCL’s new Student Centre – a paperless, multi-service, £67m new-build that fi nally fi lls the one remaining void on its Bloomsbury Campus. It has taken around 80 years to decide what should go on the site after it was bombed in the Second World War, so it was important to get it right.
Library as a natural home
For many years it was known as the Beach Street site because of its sandy nature. Over the previous eight decades its potential has been recognised, but no fi rm plans have ever come to fruition – until senior UCL leaders and the library service recognised the role a new student centre could play in delivering UCL 2034, the university’s 20- year strategy that was launched by Presi- dent and Provost Professor Michael Arthur. Paul Ayris says the opening of the Student Centre marks a signifi cant step in ensuring that strategy, which places student experi- ence at the heart of all that the university does, is a success. He says: “We see libraries as playing a really important role in the student experience, particularly so because we are based in the centre of London. The library performs a number of functions in the student life here at UCL. It’s a place to study, it’s a secure environment where students can work – together in groups or doing project work, or individually. Also, it plays a role because many students don’t live in university accommodation and there-
March 2019
Rob Green (@CILIP_Reporter,
rob.green@
cilip.org.uk) is Editor-in-Chief, Information Professional.
fore could be living in many parts of London. So when they are not in lectures or in the lab, the library is their natural home. So that’s why this building is so important.”
At the heart of the campus
The notion that libraries are at the heart of the UCL experience is both literal and metaphor- ical – UCL’s main library is at the centre of its Bloomsbury campus, the Student Centre is just a stone’s throw away. Paul adds: “[The student centre] is a place which is student-centric and which will be open to allow students to have a base in UCL to meet each other – there’s a cafeteria – there will be 1,000 learning spaces which the library will manage; student and reg- istry services off ering student-facing services; and facilities will also be there. It’s a one-stop shop for students when they come into UCL and they want to ask a question, work in a secure environment – that is where they will
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 23
UCL Learning Centre
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