Funding has been approved for a new £5.6 million Marine Skills
Centre at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. This is the first
building to be constructed as part of the New Campus Glasgow
project that aims to create a £300 million estate for Glasgow's
city centre colleges - Central, Metropolitan and Nautical. Work is
due to begin in June and take around a year to complete.
The new Centre on the banks of the River Clyde is supported with
a £5.2 million grant from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
It will include a new state-of-the-art teaching facility, the
refurbishment of existing classrooms to be used as a workshop, and
a new pontoon with free-fall lifeboat.
The existing marine facility at the College was built as a boat
shed in 1968 and is no longer fit for purpose. The new
facility will be built on the river embankment and, although
attached to the land, will appear to float above the water.
The new building will also double up as conferencing and exhibition
space to be used all the colleges.
"This is a milestone in Glasgow's proud maritime history and a
milestone for New Campus Glasgow," said Richard Speight, Depute
Principal of Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. "We attract
students from across the globe based on the world class quality of
the learning and teaching experience here. Having the best
new facilities will make us even more competitive. We aim to
set standards others will follow, and our new Marine Skills Centre
is a flavour of what's to come as the 3 colleges continue to work
towards merger with plans for a fully integrated shared estate in
the offing."
"This is tremendous news," said New Campus Glasgow Vice Chair,
Anthony Rush. "Major construction projects are inherently
complex and long term, so it's great to see an early phase of work
underway. I am sure this will bring renewed vigour to the
colleges' discussions about the scope of the full project so that
we can continue to develop the business case for the £300 million
supercampus."
Mark Batho, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council
said: "The Council is committed to the redevelopment of the estate
of the Glasgow city centre colleges and I am pleased to see the
first phase of a 21st century super campus, which will serve
students from the city, the rest of Scotland and also
internationally, is going full steam ahead. The River Clyde
has played a large part in the history of the city of Glasgow and
these new facilities will contribute to the regeneration of the
Clyde as well as providing facilities that are on par with those of
other specialist nautical training centres around the world."