Change of direction for university's £80m new campus

CONTROVERSIAL SITE HAS BEEN CALLED AN EXPENSIVE 'VANITY PROJECT' AND PARTLY BLAMED FOR HUNDREDS OF JOB LOSSES

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY

WHEN the University of Nottingham bought HMRC's former Castle Meadow tax offices off Wilford Road for £37.5 million in 2021, it had plans to transform it into an "enterprise campus" that would bring together academic research and businesses.

But the Russell Group university's vision for the site, grand and forward-thinking as it was, had a harsh meeting with reality.

Four years later, it has been labelled a "vanity project" by unions, who partially blame its huge budget for the shaky finances that have prompted UoN to cut hundreds of jobs.

The university recently admitted that it had spent more than £80 million on buying and redeveloping the site, after initially attempting to block the release of this embarrassing information.

Despite this massive outlay, the project is off track, so what will the city and UoN's thousands of students actually be getting when the campus finally opens?

Development of the site was supposed to begin in 2023 and mostly be done by late 2024, the university said two years ago. UoN also announced leading accountancy firm KPMG would be taking over space in late 2023, so that students could take advantage of working with skilled professionals.