Creating new teaching spaces

The University is implementing a project to increase the number of teaching spaces on Headington Campus.

The development of new academic spaces for students will include the creation of: 

• a 200-seat teaching space in the office space currently used by Academic and Student Administration (ASA) staff on the ground floor of the John Henry Brookes Building (JHBB)
• a 238-seat teaching space in the basement of JHBB in areas used by the library, ASA and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The following building works and service moves will take place as part of the project:

• the movement of services currently located within the Student Central space on the ground floor of JHBB to accommodate the new large teaching space. Further details of where these services will be located will be announced in due course
• the closure of the Gibbs building from 20 May 2024 until mid August 2024. A confirmed date for when the building will reopen will be communicated in a future Student News email.
• the movement of the Assistive Technology Suite from the JHBB basement to the ground floor of the Buckley Building, which is currently expected to take place in April/May 2024
• the creation of a new Moot Court for the School of Law and Social Sciences in an area of library space on the second floor of JHBB in January 2024, ahead of an expected move to the new space from April/May 2024
• the movement this month of print journals from the JHBB basement to a new campus location, as previously communicated. Access to print journals will not be available from 12 to 19 January 2024 while this move takes place but students can email libraryenquiries@brookes.ac.uk with any queries. Print and e-journals will still be available via Library Search, and after the move a new collection service will be in place for you to request print publications. Further updates will be provided via the journals webpage.

Why are these two new large teaching spaces required?

The University is working hard to ensure teaching space provision meets the needs of our students. This is particularly important given the planned increase in student numbers at Headington over the coming years. 

Extensive modelling work has demonstrated that the implementation of two large teaching spaces in JHBB will provide for the move of activity currently based at Wheatley. It also shows that these new spaces would sufficiently meet the additional large teaching space demands resulting from the move of the remaining teaching from Harcourt Hill in future years. 

How will this affect students?

The University is creating these important new teaching spaces for our students ahead of the next academic year, with much of the work taking place outside of semester teaching periods. Where work does need to take place during Semester 2, every effort will be taken to help ensure students are not unduly affected. During the creation of the Moot Court on the second floor from January 2024, library staff will run a collection service for books located near the works. You can contact libraryenquiries@brookes.ac.uk with any queries.

The University has significant numbers of library and study spaces on campus, and library staff will be available to help you to find a suitable place to study. We will continue to ensure that suitable space is made available to students over the coming months and into the next academic year.