Cardiff University spending millions on refurbishment after pushing through cuts

Martin Shipton

Postgraduate students at Cardiff University have complained about a lack of consultation over the £2m refurbishment of a building that Schools and staff were removed from in a cuts programme last year.

Students attached to a new School called HUMAN say they were given just one working day’s notice of disruptive building work.

One PhD student shared with Nation.Cymru an email sent by Professors Vicki Cummings and Mark Llewellyn, the joint heads of HUMAN.

The email states: “As promised in our recent email, we’re emailing now to share more details and a timeline about the refurbishment plans for the John Percival Building. This update comes after this week’s University Executive Board meeting, where the required investment needed for us to start work to create the home for the School of the Global Humanities was approved.

“A total investment of £1.98m has been approved to enable the work needed to facilitate movement of staff into shared offices in the building and to improve facilities for staff and students. This is in addition to the £1m already approved to repair the roof.

“The work approved this week includes:

* Office reconfiguration: Investment in new furniture and adapting rooms to support moving staff into the John Percival Building

* Teaching space improvements: Initially, estates will be upgrading 12 of the most in-need teaching rooms, with further improvements to be considered in the future, as rooms become available for refurbishment

* General works: Updated signage to reflect the building identity, decommissioning vacated buildings and relocating equipment we’ll need, some minor work to ensure Music students maintain access to practice rooms

* New proof of concept academic workspace: We’ll be the first School to pilot a flexible, open-plan working environment, which will be designed to support different working styles and collaboration. A range of workspace settings and furniture will be used so the space can be configured as needed. This is something the University is considering for more spaces across campus, so we’re delighted to be the first to benefit from a more innovative, flexible approach to how we might use our workspace. A workshop on the nature of that space will be taking place later this week and involving colleagues from across the new School.

“We hope that all staff and students will see the benefit of this much-needed investment in the building, but please be aware it won’t be a complete overhaul and refurbishment of the building at this stage.

“There is a lot of work to do, and in little time; we’re now less than three months away from our official launch date of August 1. In terms of the timeline, much work will be happening from next week onwards.

“Scaffolding mobilisation and initial / preparatory work for the JP roof repairs will be taking place from Monday May 18. The roof repair work will run from May 18 to September 11. It is likely to be noisy throughout this period.”

‘Pathetic’

The PhD student told us: “This is pathetic. The news reached the PGR [postgraduate] community, once again, in the corridor – before the email graced our inbox. As again, PGRs are the last to know about any news or update that affects us. It is blatantly clear how well this university values us.

“One working day notice before the start of major construction work is unrealistic and insulting. Not to be given any dates for consultation, just more ‘promises’ makes us feel like we are being led up the garden path. In addition, being told something is happening to you without any input in the matter is not consultation.

“On the whole, the treatment of PGR students in this school has been rather ‘INHUMAN’, excuse the pun.”

A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “There is nothing further to add to the email that has been shared with you, which you are free to reference.

“The email sets out the reasons for the investment. It also sets out how we intend to engage with our PGR community.

“Just to reiterate what the email says:

* The investment is for the refurbishment of the John Percival Building and to create the home for the new School of Global Humanities

* The work is needed to improve facilities for staff and students. Initially, we will be upgrading twelve of the most in-need teaching rooms, with further improvements to be considered in the future

* We hope that all staff and students will see the benefit of this much-needed investment in the building

* We take the views of our PGR students extremely seriously. We will be offering PGR students the opportunity to discuss with us their future needs in the new School in an open meeting. This will be in hybrid format and will take place in due course. More information will follow shortly. It is important to stress if PGR students have any issues or concerns then we would encourage them to raise them through the appropriate School, University or Students’ Union channels

* Given the likely disruption across the John Percival Building, the University has sourced good-quality alternative locations for PGRs over the summer period – very near to current working locations. We’ll be able to confirm details shortly but we’re aiming to minimise the disruption. We realise that a number of PGRs (and others) will continue to require access to the labs on floors 2, 3 and 4. We are looking to ensure that this access remains as uninterrupted as possible.

“As we’ve said in many previous responses, we do not comment on anonymous sources/statements.”