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Mayor Anderson backs investment in city centre page 7
investing in more than just bricks and mortar Liverpool John Moores University unveils plans to develop a connected walkable university village in the heart of Liverpool city centre
Vice-Chancellor’s vision Page 2
Redeveloping the old Royal Mail Sorting Office Page 4
A new student experience Page 5
Investing in the local economy Page 6
2 Liverpool John Moores University
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Investing in the future of Liverpool Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill discusses his vision of creating a connected university village stretching from the Knowledge Quarter to Byrom Street
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JMU is a complex organisation, which has evolved and grown over time to become one of the UK’s largest universities, with more than 24,000 students. Over the last decade we have invested over £160m in developing new buildings and refurbishing existing facilities, culminating with the completion of the £38m Redmonds Building 18 months ago. This investment has transformed the University, enabling us to offer staff and students inspirational facilities for teaching and learning and to further our research and knowledge transfer activities. The acquisition of the former Royal Mail Sorting Office on Copperas Hill and the decision to close our IM Marsh Campus in Aigburth helped to catalyse ideas on how we want the University to develop over the next 10 to 20 years. Now we believe the time is right to undertake the sizeable investment required to transform the University from a fragmented portfolio of 37 disparate buildings into a connected, walkable village, offering facilities that meet the aspirations and needs of students and staff while also delivering community and civic spaces for the people of Liverpool as well as visitors
to the city. This is an ambitious vision and one that will take time and considerable investment to achieve, but it is essential not just for LJMU but for Liverpool too. It will help bring cohesion to the University campus, enabling all our students to study together in the city centre while also connecting facilities at Byrom Street, where our Faculties of Science and Technology and Environment are located, with the Knowledge Quarter, home to the city’s thriving knowledgeintensive businesses. Investing in the knowledge economy is crucial to ensuring the city fights its way out of the current recession and builds a stable and prosperous economy. The development of a connected university village and further state-of-the-art facilities is not a vanity project. Nor are we investing in buildings over brains, as we have just completed a major recruitment campaign aimed at attracting international, world class academics to the University, with more than 40 new staff being appointed. Research increasingly shows the important role that higher education institutions play in local and regional economies through knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. Facilities play a crucial role in meeting educational needs and providing places where this essential know-
ledge exchange can happen. The connected university village would provide a one-stop-shop for LJMU’s current and future partners, making it easier for organisations and employers to access the facilities and expertise they need right on their doorstep. As we embark on a masterplanning exercise to see how we can turn our vision for a connected university village into reality, it’s important to stress that Copperas Hill is not another development opportunity, nor a convenient land acquisition. It will be the catalyst for developing a new narrative on how the University creates value. Not just for our students by offering an exceptional student experience delivering outstanding graduate prospects, though this is obviously essential, but to society, to culture and the economy more generally, with a clear emphasis on creating lasting positive change in Liverpool and our local communities. Our vision for a connected university village will help attract students, provide tailored spaces in which academic staff can teach and conduct research, and enable us to better harness technology while creating a real sense of community across the University. This distinctive identity will enthuse and motivate current and future students, staff, parents, partners and investors while also benefiting Liverpool through new and improved civic spaces. This is a vision – a blue sky version of what I hope will become a blueprint for our future. This is a truly inspirational and aspirational vision for the future of the University, and I believe it is now within our grasp.
Ten top facts about LJMU
LJMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill with James Wates, Deputy Chairman of Wates Construction Ltd, during a tour of the £38m Redmonds Building following its completion in 2012. During the construction of the Redmonds Building, which boasts £1m industry-standard TV, radio and news studios provided by Sony Europe Ltd, Wates ran a series of initiatives designed to help local people develop their skills and improve their job prospects. Wates also completed landscaping and other works for the adjacent St Nicholas’ and Pleasant Street Primary Schools
1. Founded in 1825, LJMU is now the UK’s 20th largest university, with more than 24,000 students 2. Ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide under the age of 50 3. Offers a range of 300-plus undergraduate, postgraduate taught and research degrees and CPD courses 4. Recruits students from more than 100 countries worldwide and has a presence in South East Asia, with an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
environment, anthropology, physics, biological sciences, computer science and informatics
5. £160m 10-year campus investment programme completed in 2012
7. Around 6,000 students graduate from the University every year
6. A top ranking modern university for research in electrical and electronic engineering, general engineering, sports-related studies, architecture and built
8. More than 90% of students who join the University straight from school or college come from state schools, with 20% living in neighbourhoods
where getting a degree is the exception not the norm 9. Over 40% of students come from households with incomes of less than £25,000 10. LJMU works closely with more than 300 schools and colleges across the North West, Northern Ireland and Wales, helping encourage talented children to consider going to university
The view from LJMU’s Redmonds Building to the former Royal Mail Sorting Office on Copperas Hill
Find out more about LJMU’s campus vision at www.ljmu.ac.uk/university-village
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Liverpool John Moores University
The student view Paul Abernethy has been President of the Liverpool Students’ Union for the last year, after graduating from the Liverpool Business School. Here’s his view on the University’s plans for Copperas Hill
The £32m Art and Design Academy on Mount Pleasant was awarded a prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects Award in 2010. Inset, its view of the cathedral
A story of evolution and change
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HEN the Liverpool Mechanics School of Art first opened its doors in 1825, few of the founding fathers could have imagined that 190 years later it would have developed into an institution ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide under the age of 50. Liverpool John Moores University has grown over the centuries by converging and amalgamating with different colleges. Its evolution reflects the important roles that the University and the city of Liverpool have played in the development of professional educa-
tion relevant to industry, commerce and innovation. The current School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences can trace its origins back to 1849, while the University’s Maritime Academy has been offering professional training courses since 1892, originally under the aegis of the Liverpool Nautical College. When it became Liverpool Polytechnic in 1970, it united the most diverse set of colleges of any polytechnic in the UK, including the Liverpool School of Commerce, the Liverpool College of Physical Education, the City of Liverpool Technical College and the College of Building, aka the ‘College of Bricks,’ to name
just a few. In 1992, the Poly became one of the UK’s new universities. Taking its name from one of the city’s great entrepreneurs and philanthropists Sir John Moores, this designation heralded a major phase of investment in new libraries and facilities. In 2002, LJMU launched its 10-year, £160m campus investment programme. The results of this investment transformed the University. Byrom Street gained two new buildings, the £2.8m Cherie Booth Building and £26m Tom Reilly Building, plus the whole site underwent a £28m refurbishment and external cladding programme. Two further iconic build-
ings were built in the Knowledge Quarter, the RIBA award-winning £32m Art and Design Academy and the £38m Redmonds Building. Other projects include the development of £1.4m clinical practice suites for nursing, midwifery and paramedic students and world class research labs for the General Engineering Research Institute. The University’s latest vision for a connected university village signals yet another phase of development, and demonstrates it hasn’t lost the revolutionary zeal of its founding fathers, who proclaimed ‘knowledge is power.’ So watch this space, the new modern civic university is coming.
LJMU can trace its origins back to 1825 and the opening of the Liverpool Mechanics Institute
I CAN’T believe the difference that LJMU has already made to the Mount Pleasant part of the city. I know first-hand what a difference new buildings and great facilities make to the students and staff who study and work in them. In the past five years, our art and design students have moved from old-fashioned, drafty and sometimes leaky studios into a state-of-the-art building, and it’s so inspiring to work in an environment that’s been created especially for you. With the Redmonds Building, having students from Law, Business and the Screen School in one place has created a real buzz. It’s more than just a
Paul Abernethy
Share your views – email: copperashill@ljmu.ac.uk
building, it’s an atmosphere that really makes you want to be part of the place and enjoy your studies. I’ve been part of the discussions about what to do with Copperas Hill, and it’s been a real privilege. The vision for the connected university village is incredible and I’m really proud that it’s my University that’s going to make this happen. I’m from Liverpool so I know what this will mean, not only to the students and staff at LJMU but to the people of the city as well. LJMU is making history with these plans, and I can’t wait to see the vision come to life.
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Transforming Copperas Hill
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IVERPOOL John Moores University’s plans to develop a connected university village go beyond just bricks and mortar, with the ultimate goal being the creation of a vibrant, welcoming community in the heart of Liverpool city centre. The connected university village would bring a renewed sense of identity and belonging to LJMU’s current portfolio of 37 buildings, from the main science and technology facilities at Byrom Street to the John Foster Building on Mount Pleasant and the Redmonds Building on Clarence Street. The heart of the village would be located in Copperas Hill on the redeveloped site of the former Royal Mail Sorting Office. This location benefits from being within walking distance of LJMU’s other teaching and learning facilities, having great public transport links, with Lime Street and Queens Square bus terminal just minutes away, and its close proximity to a wide range of high quality affordable student accommodation. Colin Davies, LJMU’s Director of Estate Management, explained: “Copperas Hill is the missing piece of the jigsaw. “LJMU’s plans to redevelop
this strategically important location would act as a catalyst for regenerating the area surrounding Lime Street and help to integrate the Knowledge Quarter with the rest of the city centre. It will also give our students a real base in the city; a place where they can study, socialise and truly connect with everything that this great city has to offer.” Some changes are already underway. LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute will move from Birkenhead to the Science Park on Brownlow Hill later this summer. This relocation not only brings the Institute’s world-acclaimed research into the city’s Knowledge Quarter, but will enable the University to better integrate the work of its National Schools Observatory with its outreach activities with primary and secondary school children across the region. A new Faculty is also being established from the merger of the existing Faculty of Health and Applied Social Sciences at Tithebarn Street and Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure, currently based in the IM Marsh campus in Aigburth. The decision to close this outlying campus was taken in 2011 and the new Faculty structure, which comes into place on August 1 2013, will ensure that LJMU continues to work in the vanguard of developments in
The challenge for LJMU is how to transform a disparate portfolio of 37 buildings into a connected university village. The solution lies in redeveloping Copperas Hill as the new ‘heart’ of a connected university village. Above and right, aerial photo and artist’s impression of how the proposed university village will look these vital professions in the decades to come. Colin Davies continued: “Transforming LJMU into a connected university village
will improve the quality of our students’ experience and create a hub where innovation and inspiration meet to help drive the city’s knowledge eco-
nomy forward. It will also vastly improve a key gateway into the city and deliver new public spaces and facilities for the whole city to enjoy.”
Better spaces and places REDEVELOPING the Copperas Hill site won’t just benefit staff and students at Liverpool John Moores University. The creation of a new university village will result in the creation of improved streetscapes, upgraded highways, landscaping and new open spaces. New safe, accessible and sympathetically landscaped pedestrian routes are also planned to and from the Knowledge Quarter, the bustling restaurants, bars, theatres and venues in the Hope Street Quarter and via St Georges Plateau and its museums and galleries to Byrom Street. Colin Davies, LJMU Director of Estate Management, said: “The expectation is that work will start on Copperas Hill in 2014 and that we would start delivering the project from 2017. “Redeveloping this strategically important but currently run-down site will position our university village at the heart of the city centre, transforming LJMU and bringing real opportunities and benefits for the people of Liverpool.”
An artist’s impression of how the area surrounding the Copperas Hill site could be improved through new landscaping and improved streetscapes, above. Right, the development of the Art and Design Academy has provided improved pedestrian access from Brownlow Hill to Mount Pleasant
Find out more about LJMU’s campus vision at www.ljmu.ac.uk/university-village
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Liverpool John Moores University
Chancellor backs the new vision THE new Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, the Right Honourable Sir Brian Leveson, has endorsed the University’s new campus vision. He said: “The vision that LJMU has of becoming a connected university village brings with it a new phase of development for the institution and signals a renewed commitment to working with and for the city of Liverpool, which is to the benefit of everyone who lives, works and studies here. “It is an ambitious programme that will take time and considerable investment to realise, but once complete The Lord Justice of it will re-affirm the pos- Appeal, Sir Brian Leveson, ition of LJMU at the is LJMU’s fifth Chancellor very heart of Liverpool.” Sir Brian, who is a Lord Justice of Appeal, recently led the public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press, and, in particular, its relationships with the public, the police and politicians. His report, published at the end of last year, is regarded as the lightning rod for fundamental changes in the way the media operate and are regulated. He continued: “I fully share and endorse the belief that LJMU should be a positive force for change, both in the lives of those who are associated with it and also in society more generally, through research, scholarship and meaningful public engagement. As Chancellor I hope to play my part in helping LJMU achieve these vitally important ambitions.”
Creating a new path to knowledge in the city
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UCCESSFUL cities have their own unique sense of place, culture and identity. That’s why Liverpool John Moores University’s plan to create a connected university village in the city centre is a hugely significant step which will make a big contribution to Liverpool’s economic future. Once completed, LJMU will be a city centrebased campus concentrated around a small number of high quality sites, including Byrom Street, Copperas Hill, the Redmonds Building and the Art and Design Academy, giving it greater coherence, unity, visibility and impact. A knowledge pathway would be created from Byrom Street to the John Foster Building opposite the Metropolitan Cathedral with Copperas Hill and a revived St Georges Plateau at the centre. This pathway would pull together the different areas of the University’s campus and connect them directly to many of the city’s great civic institutions. During the last 10 years, the waterfront, retail, residential, cultural and entertainment areas have all had extensive investment and regeneration.
This has made a huge difference to the look, feel and performance of the city centre. The one exception is the area behind Lime Street, which is still run-down. LJMU’s planned development will draw thousands of students into the area, creating huge demand for services and activities. It will boost confidence in the city centre as a whole during a critical economic time. It will integrate the city centre with the Knowledge Quarter, with its universities, colleges, hospitals, cultural institutions and high tech firms, all of which are key drivers of Liverpool’s economic future. A revitalised Copperas Hill will be both the ‘front door’ and ‘beating heart’ of the University, but it will be more than just another university building. LJMU will create a real place, a real community, which is well connected, has good design and quality public realm where the local community and local businesses will feel wanted and at home. It will be an inspirational move by a modern civic university determined to make an even greater contribution to the economic future of the people of Liverpool and its city region.
The new knowledge path would improve connections between LJMU’s Byrom Street campus and the Knowledge Quarter
Share your views – email: copperashill@ljmu.ac.uk
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
Vital investment in city’s knowledge economy
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HE keys to economic success in cities are innovation, economic and social diversity, place quality, a skilled workforce, good connectivity and good leadership and governance. Universities are hugely significant contributors. They provide many jobs, attract skilled people, bring substantial investment, raise skill levels, contribute to the cultural and social life and shape the very heart of a city. A successful city needs a full range of jobs, from the social, caring and heath sec-
Professor Michael Parkinson, Director of LJMU’s European Institute for Urban Affairs, discusses why universities are vital to Liverpool’s continued economic prosperity tors to retail, commercial, tourism and culture. They also need to create high value added jobs in the cutting-edge parts of the economy. Universities are key to this. Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter already has much to offer, but will do even more in future. It contains three universities, a major community college, research intensive hos-
pitals as well as major cultural organisations. All generate jobs and income nationally and globally. With its investment plans, Liverpool John Moores University will play a major part in its development. LJMU’s major investment in Liverpool city centre will help it achieve its own longterm ambitions but also make a huge con-
Michael Parkinson tribution to the city’s regional economy. Liverpool has had a very good decade of regeneration and investment. The city is more ambitious, more confident, more market-oriented. There has been huge high quality invest-
ment in the city centre. Those changes have changed the way that people inside and outside the city see Liverpool. LJMU will play an even larger role in this process in the future. It is a major anchor institution in Liverpool. It makes huge investments in the city and its people. Its vision for a modern civic university committed to increasing economic opportunity, and its city centre investment plans, will help consolidate the achievements Liverpool has already made. And it will help it do even better in a competitive global marketplace.
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T’S colourless, odourless and tasteless, poisons more than 4,000 people every year in England and Wales, and yet, according to research, less than 10% of homes on Merseyside have installed a carbon monoxide alarm. Thanks to funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health, researchers from Liverpool John Moores University’s Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Research Institute have been working with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, West Midlands Fire Service and Coventry City Council to raise awareness of the dangers of this silent killer. Lead researcher Dr Andrew Shaw said: “For the first time this study shows
how many homes do not have carbon monoxide alarms fitted, and we got a true figure on the potential risk for carbon monoxide poisoning. “Many more people are likely to be exposed and suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning but be unaware of the cause. “As a result the impact on health may well be underestimated.” Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Station Manager Gary Oakford added: “This project has already helped to save lives in Merseyside, after data loggers picked up dangerous levels of carbon monoxide being produced by boilers in homes, as well as from cooking and heating appliances.” So if you haven’t got one already, make sure you install a carbon monoxide alarm without delay – your life could depend on it.
Giving dementia a voice
Support offered to care leavers WITH support from the Yoko Ono Spirit Foundation, LJMU is able to provide targeted and bespoke support to students who have experience of being in local authority care or who are estranged from their parents, through its John Lennon Imagine Awards. Such support is vital as, statistically, care leavers have more chance of becoming homeless or ending up in the criminal justice system than going to university. Unsurprisingly, demand for LJMU’s John Lennon Imagine Awards is growing year on year. Yoko Ono commented: “I know that these awards, set up in John’s name, have made a real difference to the lives of these young people, and I am proud that John’s legacy lives on in such a force for good.”
Research helps save local lives
Pupils from Leamington Community Primary, above and below, are supporting LJMU’s Smokefree Sports campaign
Smokefree Sports campaign RESEARCHERS from LJMU’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences are working with coaches from Everton in the Community, Liverpool Football Foundation and Sportslinx on a unique Liverpool Primary Care Trust-funded project to investigate whether sport can be used to prevent children from starting to smoke. More than 30 primary schools have already signed up to be involved
with Smokefree Sports, including Leamington Community Primary. Headteacher Nicola Simcoe said: “The project is an exciting opportunity for children to learn about the importance of being smokefree using the medium of sport and physical activity.” To do your bit to help keep Liverpool Smoke Free, visit the website www.ljmu.ac.uk/smokefree-sports-charter/
LJMU and Mersey Care NHS Trust are leading a £5.4m Innovate Dementia project in the UK, linking the growing number of people with dementia across North West Europe. Tom Dunne is a member of the project Steering Group and has been living with dementia for two years. He said: “As someone suffering from dementia, it has been a real boost for me to put my opinions across and be given a say in what I think should be done. “The involvement of LJMU is great, as I feel that universities are for ideas and to research into new ways of solving challenges.” Dr David Fearnley, consultant psychiatrist and medical director of Mersey Care NHS Trust, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the University and Mersey Care to work together with people with dementia to develop new approaches and practical solutions that will have an impact both locally and across North West Europe.”
Find out more about LJMU’s campus vision at www.ljmu.ac.uk/university-village
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Liverpool John Moores University
Partnerships that put students first
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INKS with a range of leading Liverpool-based organisations are opening up new opportunities for students at Liverpool John Moores University to gain invaluable work experience and access the full range of cultural activities on offer in the city. As a new Principal Partner of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, LJMU will be encouraging more students to go and hear concerts by Liverpool’s internationallyacclaimed orchestra, though the partnership goes much deeper than offering free tickets or naming a concert series. Students will benefit from being able to take part in Liverpool Philharmonic's learning programmes, and both organisations are exploring how best to combine their outreach activities with schools and local communities to make learning and culture more accessible to the people of Liverpool. “Our new partnership with LJMU demonstrates our shared commitment to providing inspirational opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to get involved in learning, music and the arts, and that everyone can and should get involved,” said Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko, who was awarded an LJMU Honorary Fellowship in 2012 for his contributions to Liverpool and the arts. LJMU has longstanding links with the city’s arts and cultural institutions, and in
2012 a partnership with Liverpool Biennial saw the University’s Copperas Hill building being used as a venue for three major exhibitions. Students also gained direct experience of working as part of an international arts festival. Links with Tate Liverpool have also been consolidated with the recent appointment of Dr Anthony Hudek to a dual role, which enables him to teach and direct LJMU’s new Exhibition Research Centre and work as a Research Curator at Tate Liverpool. Later this year, fine art students will be working with the gallery as part of the Art Turning Left exhibition, co-curated by LJMU PhD student Lynn Wray and sponsored by LJMU, which opens at Tate Liverpool this November. Francesco Manacorda, Artistic Director, Tate Liverpool, said: “Our relationship with LJMU is extremely important to our work at Tate Liverpool, especially the opportunity to engage with student audiences. As our partnership has evolved, this means more than simply attracting visitors to exhibitions and events. “Through collaboration, LJMU is able to make a significant intellectual contribution to our exhibitions, supporting the research and development of our projects from conception to delivery.” LJMU, the second highest ranking university in the Stonewall index of Britain's best employers for lesbian,
Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko, centre, with LJMU Vice-Chancellor Nigel Weatherill and students from the University at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall gay and bisexual staff, is the lead partner for this year’s 10th anniversary Homotopia Festival. Homotopia is the UK’s leading gay arts and cultural festival and thanks to the partnership students will be employed as marketing and design interns and taking part in drama workshops, legal debates and master classes. One exceptional student will
be employed to manage and curate three exhibitions, two of which will feature materials directly sourced from LJMU’s Special Collections and Archives Department. “The true value of our archives is in the imagination and vision embodied in each of the collections. That’s why it’s fantastic that we will be able to showcase some of them
as part of the Homotopia Festival and inspire visitors with some of the wonderful images we hold,” said Val Stevenson, Head of Academic Services at LJMU. “This event follows on very well from the Glam! exhibition at Tate Liverpool, picking up themes of gender, identity and sexuality in the youth culture of the 1970s and early 1980s.”
Fuelling technical innovations
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Y working with LJMU’s General Engineering Research Institute (GERI), Biomer Technology Ltd, a biomaterials company based in Runcorn, has been able to secure additional funding to undertake research and development activities. Managing Director Simon Dixon said: “I have worked with GERI on projects which have been a great benefit to Biomer. “We are currently involved with an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded project investigating advanced laser processing techniques, and we look forward to developing new biomedical product lines as a result.” Biomer is just one local company to benefit from GERI’s new
outreach project. Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the project harnesses GERI’s worldclass engineering expertise to support to North West companies. Director Professor David Burton explained: “We have a history of working with companies all over the world, and this project enables us to continue this work while focusing on supporting local organisations. “Our laboratories are available to support businesses to undertake research and development. Our doors are always open to discuss any technological issues.” For more information on how your company can benefit from the Outreach Project, please contact Anthony Walker 0151 231 2150.
Professor David Burton and Anthony Walker in the General Engineering Research Institute’s new Microscopy laboratory
Share your views – email: copperashill@ljmu.ac.uk
Homotopia’s Artistic Director Gary Everett added: “The partnership with LJMU is a truly exciting and dynamic collaboration, which has been invaluable for this year’s programme of talks and exhibitions. We want this association to offer students unique opportunities to gain experience while offering us practical support.”
University key to city’s economic development PLANS to direct university resources and expertise for the benefit of local people and the local economy have been welcomed by the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson (pictured). He said: “Liverpool’s universities are world famous and play a unique role in many different ways. They attract students to the city and educate them to the highest standard, with many going on to live here. “And they provide a community of research and innovation for the benefit of the city. LJMU’s proposals are exactly what Liverpool needs and will help support the city’s ongoing economic and social development.”
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