The University is renovating the Boiler House to create a new social space for students. This will mean relocating the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel, a world-renowned experimental facility which is used by the School of Marine Science and Technology, to a new site in Blyth.
The cavitation tunnel is the only one in operation in the UK, and is used not just by the University but also for global research projects and by commercial companies. Although the main function of the tunnel is to test propellers, it has also been used for research into other marine-related areas, such as the water turbines and even the best paint to use to coat ships’ hulls.
In March 2016 the tunnel will be shut down, disassembled, cleaned and repaired and then reassembled in a new, purpose-built facility in the port of Blyth, around 13 miles away from Newcastle. This process is expected to take around nine months, during which time the tunnel will be out of operation.
All the projects currently using the tunnel will have to be suspended, including research for a major EU project and three Newcastle PhD projects, although the University has ensured that students will not lose out as a result of this.
The Boiler House, situated in between the Armstrong Building and the Students’ Union, will then be extensively refurbished, transforming the building into a multi-purpose event space.
Professor Tony Stevenson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, clarified: “The plans are still being developed, so we haven’t got permission to do anything yet, but our intentions are to create a student function space.” This space will be able to be used for congregation ceremonies, open days and performances. The Students’ Union will also be able to use the building.
The renovation will probably involve removing the top floor extension to restore the original castellations, and Professor Stevenson said that they were hoping to “bring back the splendour” to the building.
He continued: “The design was done in-house by some of our architectural assistants that came out of the architecture school, so we’re using students who have been working on placements and then got jobs within our estates department.”
Professor Andrew Willmott, Head of the School of Marine Science and Technology, said: “The University is very keen to ensure that the quality of its estates is the highest possible because we’re in a very competitive market for higher education. As part of that exercise the University is focussing particularly on the region around the central square, where the Boiler House is, and has planned to renovate that building because it’s in such a prominent position.”
The University hopes to open the refurbished building in September 2017, in time for the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King receiving an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University. Both Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, as well as Newcastle City Council, are planning a series of events to commemorate the anniversary.
The redevelopment of the Boiler House is part of a larger plan to transform the centre of campus. King’s Road has been extensively remodelled, and the Armstrong Building is currently undergoing a major restoration. Part of this restoration involves “turning the building around”, so that the central quad becomes the main entrance. This will allow congregations to flow from King’s Hall to the newly renovated Boiler House.
Work cannot begin on the project until the cavitation tunnel, installed in the building in 1950, is removed. Although the University’s initial plan was to scrap the tunnel entirely, Professor Willmott persuaded them to relocate it. He explained: “I developed a case with the support of the faculty pro-vice chancellor to move the tunnel. In developing that project I had to ensure that wherever it was going to move to, the potential downtime was going to be minimised.”
Blyth was chosen as the new home for the tunnel because it had space for a building to be constructed in a relatively short space of time, and because it is where the School’s research vessel and other research buildings are located. The tunnel is expected to be back in operation by January 2017.
During the move the tunnel will be cleaned, before being reassembled at the new site. Although the tunnel has been modified several times, including major modernisation work in 1980, 2000 and 2006, this is by far the biggest change in the tunnel’s history.
The University has spoken to the PhD students affected by the move, with the main options offered to students being to use another cavitation tunnel in Europe or to work as research assistants in the School and then return to their PhDs once the tunnel is back in use. Professor Willmott explained that the University had ensured “that there were appropriate alternative arrangements or other ways that we could support them so that they were not going to be disadvantaged either financially or ultimately in terms of their academic progress.”
He added: “They [the students] were initially a little disappointed that they were going to be impacted by the relocation of the tunnel, but we made it clear that the School and the University have a duty of care and responsibility for these students.” Several staff and students started a petition to “stop the relocation of the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel”, which has attracted 478 signatures from around the world.
For international students to extend their PhDs, they will need to ensure that they are still compliant with visa laws, but the University has committed to supporting all the students. Dr Bryn Jones, Dean of Postgraduate Studies, said: “We’re not anticipating students to be out of pocket at all in any way as a result of this move.”
He continued: “Ideally we’ll use the time that the tunnel move takes to allow them to get some other positive benefits from their PhDs, whether that is time as a research assistant… or by allowing them extra time to publish papers from the work that they’ve done so far… we would like to see them get something positive out of the move and that’s really what we want to support them to do.”
Professor Willmott added: “The University is committing a substantial investment into this project of relocating the tunnel and putting up a new building for it.” The cost of the move is estimated at around £1.5 million, and the new site will allow the department to expand. After the move the School will employ a full time technician to oversee the tunnel.
The Marine Science and Technology school is currently spread over five different sites: the Armstrong Building, the Ridley Building, the Boiler House, the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats and a Marine Station at Blyth. The Marine Station only opened a year ago, and is the new permanent home of the Marine Science department’s research vessel. Relocating the cavitation tunnel to Blyth will integrate it with these new facilities, while the rest of the school will remain on the main campus.
Professor Willmott continued: “I view this as a vote, an endorsement of the importance that the University places on Marine Science and Technology. There aren’t many UK universities that work in this area and this University has a long and proud tradition of doing research and teaching in this area.
“It is very pleasing to see that the University recognises the importance of what I think you could term a major national facility… and is willing to put it into a building which is vastly superior to the Boiler House.”
Dear Mr Sleightholm and the editors,
I don’t understand few mounts ago the author says ” …big part of the university work is independent research.” (http://thecourieronline.co.uk/9000-a-year-cant-balance-the-books/) and now the same author says “create a new social space for students by removing a research facilities”.
Yes, the University has a marine station in Blyth, because the University research vessel berthed at Blyth. Blyth is a very remote place and takes an hour to arrive by bus. There is no other transportation way publically.
I also don’t understand why this article is mentioning about “the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King “in the context of the tunnel. Or it was not written as independent voice as it is titled at the cover page. For instance, it could be like that : this unique and historical research facility will be removed and converted to a reception hall. I am sure Martin Luther would be very happy to hear all this things happening for him.
Apart from one person, none of academic people from the School of Marine Science and Technology (students, researchers and lecturers) are agreed with the decision made by the university high management. This information is based on the petition mentioned in this article.
I am not sure if any of PhD was offered a research assistant position for a supervised project. Researching what if you have no research facilities? Or the university meant that PhDs sell coffee in the new social facility as research assistance. Nevertheless who wants to stop their study and wait till the facility will be back in use in 9 months. It is not giving birth, is it? How they can be sure about it. Moreover which EU facility has such a cavitation tunnel that is capable of what the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel can do?
Not only postgraduate students but also undergraduate and master students have been already publishing both journal papers and conference papers while they are studying. It can be search from web of science and can be seen how updated papers are. Moreover, there is no such an idea to stop research and just write a paper.
And is it really necessary and logic to have another social place just beside the student union and King’s Hall?
The University has a contract to do this EU project as well as PhD projects. How does the university protect Newcastle University’s reputation if we delay or not finish the contract?
“The biggest change in the tunnel’s history” had to be planned well in advance. But there is no architectural plan as it is written in the article. I sure if there was the university management would give it to the courier to be published. And there was no feasibility report that says new location is suitable for a research facility. Bear in mind it will be next to the Blyth beach and the equipment of the cavitation tunnel might be affected be the highly corrosive sea water and sand.
We know that renovation of a 20 m road of the main campus took months. Who knows how long it will take removing and reconstructing a building. I wish the university had a better plan than removing and did not use the name Martin Luther King.
And I wish The Independent Voice of Newcastle Students would include a voice of single person from students’ side, not only non-students side.
Regards,
Serkan
Hi Serkan
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read my article. I would like to point out that the piece I wrote last year was for the comment section, and so I was expressing my personal views, whereas with this news article I tried to be as unbiased and as balanced as I could.
I’m very sorry if you feel that your views were not included, but since I was unable to get any of the students impacted by the move to provide a comment, I could not include their views. However, if, as you claim, most students and staff are against the move, then your comment, which will be seen by anyone who reads this article, expresses their views anyway. As you highlighted in your comment, I did mention the petition, which I feel made it clear that there was opposition to the move.
I understand that this is a major and potentially controversial project, which is why we were keen to publicise it in The Courier. To the best of my knowledge, none of the information in the article is factually incorrect, and as I’m sure you understand, journalism is about reporting the facts, rather than commenting on University projects.
Kind regards,
Mark