University plans to shut down and sell off its 'vanity project' campus

£80M SITE IS NO LONGER A 'STRATEGIC PRIORITY'

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE AND JOSHUA HARTLEY

THE University of Nottingham is planning to sell the "vanity project" campus it has spent more than £80 million on just months after the latest part of it opened.

The institution has told staff that the only parts of the Castle Meadow Campus it occupies will be shut down in weeks, just four years after it first purchased the former HMRC offices.

Other university buildings could also face the axe as the financially struggling institution continues a “programme of work to identify underutilised buildings” across its campus.

The university says it now faces £100 million of costs every year to operate its estate and that this figure is “not sustainable” with the institution having already announced the planned sale of the King’s Meadow Campus earlier this year.

Unions have long criticised the university's development of the Castle Meadow Campus, which it was only supposed to spend £45 million on over the first 10 years, and have said it is partly to blame for hundreds of job cuts at the institution.

News of the planned sale was confirmed in a message to staff on Wednesday from Gary Moss, the university's director of estates and facilities.

A University of Nottingham spokesperson confirmed: “We bought Castle Meadow Campus (CMC) when the university planned to grow and expand its footprint in the city centre and develop new opportunities for teaching, research and partnership activity.