A £2.1 MILLION project to “revitalise” the campus at Musselburgh-based Queen Margaret University (QMU) is under way.

New teaching and learning spaces are being developed to meet the changing needs of the university’s staff and 10,000 students, as part of its Future Spaces project.

The work also aims to support QMU’s ambitions to “refresh, enhance and modernise” the campus, which was built in 2007, so that it continues to attract prospective students and supports the growth of the university.

Bruce Laing, director of Campus Services, said: “Queen Margaret University already has an attractive, bright, modern campus development, but it’s important that we continue investing in our buildings to ensure they reflect changes in the way students work and developments in the way we teach.

“Essentially, we want to create welcoming and comfortable study and teaching spaces where students want to be, and which will support and enhance their learning.

“Aside from supporting current students studying at the university, the investment will help us to remain competitive in our ability to attract prospective students.”

An artist's impression of how the Helpdesk at QMU will look after the renovation project

A range of stakeholder engagement has taken place across the university through workshops and surveys to help shape the plans and deliver “attractive, flexible spaces which would inspire, motivate and support students to fully engage in a diverse range of learning opportunities”.

The renovation work involves the transformation of the Learning Resource Centre to create spaces which support social learning through collaborative projects, and flexible spaces which support a diversity of informal teaching and supervision activity.

Mr Laing said: “We are delighted to be working with Morris & Spottiswood in the transformation of the building spaces, and it is hoped that the full first phase of the project will be completed shortly, allowing our students to take full advantage of the new spaces in their first semester.

An overview of the renovation project

“We are also excited about showcasing our new interior spaces to hundreds of prospective students and their families at our September and October open days this year.

“More importantly, we are confident that the current transformation of learning and teaching spaces will help us enhance the student experience so that students are well equipped to go out into the world and make a difference.”

David Thorn, operations director at Morris & Spottiswood, added: “Our aim is to create places where people can thrive and this project really seeks to deliver such spaces, so we are thrilled to be involved.

“All stakeholders are committed to successful delivery, and we have experienced true commitment to partnership working across our team, designers ADP Architecture, project managers HD Property Consultants and the wider project delivery team.”

Professor David Stevenson, Dean of the School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management and project sponsor, commented: “This is an exciting, creative project for the university which, after two years of work, will now revitalise and improve our learning environment.”