A second education building for Wageningen University is going to be built on the Wageningen Campus. The Supervisory Board of Wageningen UR has approved the plans of the Executive Board for the construction of this facility. In addition - if certain conditions are met - the realisation of the accommodation on the campus for the chair groups of the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences will be accelerated. As a result, in 2013 the concentration of the research and education activities within Wageningen will be finished. The budget for the new construction and the modifications to existing buildings will be approximately €100 million in total.
Expansion of the educational facilities is necessary due to the large increase in the number of students at Wageningen University. This year, the number of first-year students rose sharply again, by 17% compared to last year. According to plans, the new education building will be completed in 2012.
It has been possible to significantly limit the size of the new education building due to a large number of efficiency measures taken in the existing buildings, which will provide more space for education. In this way, more than 3000 m² of new educational facilities will be realised in existing buildings. This joint effort of the various sciences groups of Wageningen UR has resulted in a savings of €38 million on the investment in the new education building. Following the realisation of the plans, there will be space for approximately 7500 university bachelors and masters students on the Wageningen Campus. There will also be educational facilities for more than 500 students of the Wageningen location of Van Hall Larenstein School of Higher Professional Education. In addition, the presence of the majority of Wageningen PhD students on the Campus will create an inspiring and interactive learning environment.
Agrotechnology and Food Sciences
Now that all the education will be concentrated on the Wageningen Campus, it has also been decided to locate the remaining chair groups of the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences of Wageningen University on the campus. A number of research facilities will also relocate to the Campus. These research activities are still taking place at De Dreijen, and according to a previous plan, they would not move until 2020. This relocation is now being moved forward. As a result, the concentration of education and research activities within Wageningen will be finished in 2013. The preparations for this move are now going ahead at full speed. However, these preparations will be suspended or stopped if the crisis in the economy appears to affect research and education in the Netherlands more seriously than has been foreseen the realisation of the new education building will not be subject to this restriction.
For more information
please contact Simon Vink, spokesperson of the Executive Board of Wageningen UR, tel. 0317 482 466, e-mail simon.vink@wur.nl