Recent Developments
Western Campus
Work began in 2000 on the transformation of the old sports pitches behind the main building into the landscaped Western Campus. It now features a continental-style piazza area and a lake, complete with ducks, which act as a focal point for the Faculty of Education, CMIST, LINC building, Management Centre and the newly completed Faculty of Health and Social Care.
LINC (Learning Innovation Centre)
The £3m LINC building is a major focus for teaching and learning. Opened in 2000, it gives students 24 hr access to 220 high-speed, internet connected PCs and satellite TV. It also houses industry standard broadcasting equipment including a full-scale TV studio with the latest HD technology, radio production, editing and multimedia production facilities.
The Wilson Centre
Opened in 2001, and named after the former Chairman of Edge Hill’s Board of Governors, Bob Wilson, this £4.3m facility features specialised laboratories for sports psychology, physiology and biomechanics, and a spacious dance studio.
Faculty of Education
Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra opened the £9m Faculty of Education building in 2004. The facilities include 24 modern teaching rooms, a 300-seat lecture theatre, cutting edge ICT equipment and a model school classroom. Its stunning lakeside location is overlooked by the Water's Edge Restaurant and cyber café which seats up to 120.
CMIST
2004 saw the opening of Edge Hill’s £4m Centre for Media, Information Systems and Technology. Equipped with the latest hardware and software, the building also houses the Newsroom, a 25-workstation print and radio journalism production resource and sound studio. Other facilities include specialist Apple Mac studios, mini-disc recording facilities, video-editing, digital media design software and video decks and a 3D animation studio.
Performing Arts
The £5m Performing Arts Centre, which opened in 2005, includes two theatres, a fully sprung dance studio, six drama studios, seminar rooms and enhanced facilities for music. It also features a full range of production studios for activities such as set and costume design, and its own professional, working performance space, The Rose Theatre.
Faculty of Health and Social Care
Completed in December 2007, this £14m energy-efficient building offers some of the best facilities for health and social care students in the UK. As well as 7000m2 of teaching and learning space and an 860-seater lecture theatre – large enough for graduation ceremonies – the new building includes the Clincial Skills and Simulation Centre, which mocks up hospital ward environments complete with industry standard equipment for hands-on learning.
Business and Law School
The £8m Business and Law School, opened in January 2009, houses around 1,000 Business, Law and Criminology students, bringing them together under one roof for the first time. The building includes a lecture theatre, teaching rooms with the latest audio visual equipment, IT laboratories with extensive PC and Mac provision and peripherals such as webcams, scanners and the latest Macromedia software. Law students have their own law-specific library and have access to a 100-seat ‘moot’ room, which is a mock-up of a courtroom.
Social and Psychological Sciences Building
Opened in 2009 by Edge Hill Chancellor and renowned child psychologist Professor Tanya Byron, this building was transformed from Business Management Building to a home for the staff and students of the Social and Psychological Sciences Department following a £1m refurbishment. The project included nine new research booths with specialist IT facilities to support practical and dissertation work and a Big Brother-style observation suite to record group behaviour in psychological analysis tasks. A new glass entrance, solar shielding and new windows were also installed.
Founders’ Court
Opened in September 2009 in time for the new intake of students, the accommodation provides 144 ultra-modern rooms across several blocks holding between six and eight self-contained flats. Each student living in Founders’ Court has an en-suite bathroom and shares a kitchen and living area. The flats use solar panels to heat part of the hot water supply and triple glazed windows and heavily insulated walls to prevent heat loss. Low-energy electrical fittings are also used throughout.
Graduates’ Court
The second phase of the University’s new on-campus student residences were completed in time for the start of the academic year in September 2010. Comprising several blocks of self-contained flats, each are named after the University’s most illustrious alumni – Helena Normanton, Ethel Annakin, Jonathan Pryce, Stuart Maconie and Joe Ainsworth. In a far cry from the accommodation available when these alumni were students, the bedrooms all contain flat screen TVs, personal fridges and WiFi internet access.
Gymnasium
Opened in September 2010, the new Gym is fitted out with four badminton courts, basketball and gymnastic equipment. The ground floor contains the Sporting Edge Reception and a Starbucks coffee bar. Eco features include optimisation of natural light to avoid using electric lights, uses of waste heat from the University’s computer servers and hot water provided by solar collectors on the roof. Wind catchers are used to draw the outside air into the building, providing natural ventilation.
Durning Centre
Completed in July 2010, this functional, purpose built building now houses the key support service teams, such as IT, Facilities Management and Capital Developments. The Facilities Management helpdesk is located on the ground floor, which acts as a one-stop shop for maintenance and car parking queries for both staff and students. Eco features include heavily insulated walls, energy efficient lights and ‘air source heat pumps’ which channels waste heat from PCs into the underfloor heating system. The building also shares heat and hot water with Sporting Edge, creating a highly efficient system with to help reduce carbon emissions.
The Hollies
Opened in 2010, The Hollies is a red-brick house built in the 1920’s which has, until recently, been used as offices. The house has now been renovated to provide en-suite accommodation in 12 single bedrooms and a family room for visiting guests and lecturers to the Ormskirk Campus. Eco features include heavily insulated walls to reduce heat loss, double glazed windows, and optimisation of natural light to avoid using electric lights during the day.
Milton House
Opened in 2011, Milton House was originally built as a two-storey detached Edwardian villa, and has now been transformed into the University’s Health and Wellbeing Centre. Until recently, it was used as student accommodation but now offers services such as a drop-in centre for staff and students during term time, a surgery with nurses, health promotion clinics, counselling sessions and welfare and wellbeing services. Thermal insulation has been added, with full replacement of the old mechanical and electrical systems to make the building more energy efficiency.