Students benefit from latest technology at the new Nightingale Centre

24/01/08

Students benefit from latest technology at the new Nightingale Centre

Students are benefiting from the latest technology at the new Nightingale Centre which officially opened this week (23 January). The centre was established as a £5 million extension to the existing Learning Resources Centre and is named after Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910) who was a regular visitor to Kingston Hill.

As well as bookable meeting pods, staff and students also have access to automated self-service loans and returns machines which use radio frequency identification technology. The centre boasts a variety of learning spaces, with five group study rooms, 638 individual study places and 229 fixed computers. A 60-seat Learning Café provides a place for people to study and socialise.

Cathy Schofield, Co-ordinator of World Book Day – which promotes books and reading to young people in the United Kingdom – officially opened the venue on Wednesday 23 January and described it as both impressive and welcoming. “This centre is a library with books at its core, but it is also so much more,” she said. “Designed to ensure that multiple modern technologies can operate within it, it is a window on the world that will allow students access to what they need to succeed in their personal ambitions and to make their contribution to society. It is also designed to make the learning experience a shared and enjoyable one.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Peter Scott said the Nightingale Centre was part of a £110 million investment project in the University’s estate. “Teaching in a modern university is becoming a much more sophisticated operation – the whole environment of learning is crucial to the experience that students have,” he said.