University Receives Maximum Grant from OfS to Further Develop Severn Campus

The University of Worcester has been awarded almost £6m over three years to continue its development of the Severn Campus as a Centre for Health and Wellbeing and to purchase new specialist science and health equipment for teaching.

The University is one of 47 institutions to receive the maximum grant of £5.8m from the Office for Students’ Strategic Priorities Capital Grant Fund in the latest round, which covers the financial years 2022-23; 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The money will go towards the development of new teaching spaces on the Severn Campus, as well specialist science equipment.

It comes after the University was one of 34 institutions to receive the maximum grant of £2m last year, which went towards the development of the former Worcester News building on the Severn Campus and to purchasing specialist health and science equipment for teaching.

The University is one of only 21 institutions to receive the maximum grant both this year and last year.

Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor David Green CBE DL, said: “We are very pleased to have been awarded the maximum grant for the second time from the OfS, who can clearly see how important this new development is to the future of educating health professionals that are so needed in our society.”

Robin Walker, MP for Worcester and Chair of the Education Select Committee of the House of Commons, said: “I’m delighted to see this positive news about investment in local facilities for our university. Further investment in facilities to support health professionals in their training and more specialist scientific equipment will be of benefit not only to the students who use them but also to the wider community in Worcester.

“The success of the bid demonstrates the confidence that the OfS and the Government have in the University of Worcester to develop health professionals and I am hopeful it will be shortly followed by progress in providing funded places for the medical school. The new Health and Wellbeing Campus that is being developed on the west bank of the river Severn was a core part of the City’s Towns Fund bid and these additional funds can only strengthen the public benefit from that investment.”

The former Worcester News building, now known as the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Building after the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon, will provide a home for the University’s new Medical School, which will begin educating its first cohort of students from September 2023. It will also provide state-of-the-art teaching facilities and equipment for the training of a host of other health professionals, including the University’s long-running and highly regarded Nursing and Midwifery programmes.

The University has also refurbished a building behind the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Building, previously used for Fine Art, into a specialist space for the teaching of Paramedic and other health students. This building is now known as the Elizabeth Casson Building after the pioneering doctor who is seen as the founder of occupational therapy in England.

Meanwhile, a new building planned for the site adjacent to the Elizabeth Casson building will further expand the teaching facilities for students studying on the University’s wide range of health courses.

“We are deeply committed to educating the health professionals we so desperately need going forwards,” said Professor Green. “Our vision for the Severn Campus is to create a centre of excellence for health, sport and well-being education, working closely with our many partners in the NHS, Sport and the wider community, who are so deeply involved with and supportive of our plans.”