When I arrived at Oxford Brookes in 2010 it was a very different university. I started my studies in September of that year, and began at an institution that was about to undergo a transformation that would see it come to be a new place.

Anyone who has visited the Headington campus since this February will have seen the new John Henry Brookes Building.

This new space, which is the fruit of the £132 million investment made by the university, begins a new era in educating students at Brookes.

I studied on the Headington campus from 2010 until the summer of last year and so was not fortunate enough to get to study in the inspirational and truly breathtaking spaces offered by the building.

Throughout my time, the teaching and support I received was faultless, and staff dedication was second-to none.

But I think it’s fair to say many of the buildings in which I spent so many hours weren’t a fair reflection of this quality.

The John Henry Brookes Building, alongside the Abercrombie Extension on the Headington campus, brings about a change to this.

Students of Oxford Brookes now and in the future will study and learn in the award-winning new and beautiful spaces offered by the building. This was recently recognised with several awards from the south region of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a nomination for the Stirling Prize.

The inspirational teaching they experience will be matched by the equally remarkable areas in which it is delivered. The result? I’m certain our students will be inspired to do even greater things.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to get to study in the John Henry Brookes Building, but I was able to help make sure future students could. Joining a focus group of students in my second year – the student redevelopment group – I had the opportunity to contribute directly to decisions relating to the building’s development.

Oxford Mail:

  • An artist’s impression of the John Henry Brookes Building main entrance

Seemingly simple, but ultimately very important, decisions such as the types of furniture to be used in the building and opening hours of key services were based on recommendations made by this group.

That these decisions, which could have easily just been taken, involved the very people that would be using the spaces shows the respect given to the voice of the student at Brookes.

Having the experience now of working for the university too, I know first-hand its desire to put the student at the heart of all it does – and the group of which I was a member is only one example of this.

Oxford Mail:

  • The Abercrombie Extension

Our students pushing through the final few weeks of semester have been able to do so in the comfort and magnificence of what has become, and rightly so, their building.

It would be wrong to suggest the success of the John Henry Brookes Building is down to the student redevelopment group, but I do know we did make a very real difference.

And this difference gives Oxford Brookes the leading modern spaces its students deserve.

Further information on the John Henry Brookes Building is available at brookes.ac.uk/spaceto think

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