Julie and I spent a delightful afternoon at the University yesterday beginning with a lunch kindly hosted by the new Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Jill Schofield and Beverley Kelly, Head of Development Services (who arranged this). It was great to see Dean Jones (erstwhile Deputy Town Clerk) also. Dean is now Development Coordinator for the University.
Our conversation ranged across a wide range of issues including, of course, the expansion plans for the University. Currently it has 2000 students and is planned to increase to 5000 over the next decade or so. This is a change to the town that we all need to manage. I know my colleagues on the Town Council are keen to work in partnership with the University to make sure this expansion results in a town that is better for all who live, study, work and play here.
We talked lots about Town and Gown integration and came up with a few ideas that could help make this happen more. As regular readers know, I am in touch with some of the university students about building my Buckingham Ambition Project. Again some actions were discussed and were put in train... watch this space.
And then Beverley took us on a short tour of the University which included the broadcast studios and the medical school. Great to see where the University radio is broadcast from, for example. Absolutely fascinating to see the models that the medical students practice on to learn (for example) about performing injections on people. The Communications and Marketing Officer, Anastasiya Ostapchuk was very helpful and informative. I was able to put her in touch with a woman I met a few months ago, who runs a company that hires out cadavers (yes, really!) for medical research and training.
There is lots of information here about the past and future of the University here. And if you want to become a friend of the University - click here.
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