Reg Little talks to Oxford Brookes University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alistair Fitt

If you think that building work at Oxford Brookes University seems to be never ending, you are not alone: the new Vice-Chancellor of Brookes, Professor Alistair Fitt, would certainly agree.

And as he contemplates a £130m package of refurbishment, new builds and campus schemes, Prof Fitt makes no apology for the extent of the building work that lies ahead in the coming decade.

With its Headington campus newly transformed in good time for the university’s 150th birthday celebrations and its landmark John Henry Brookes Building winning multiple awards, including RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) regional and national awards, some might have imagined him finding a “there’s no money left” note from his predecessor, Professor Janet Beer.

In fact, Prof Fitt is already looking forward to major refurbishments at the Gipsy Lane and Harcourt Hill campuses, with the search on for a new site in Swindon, with Brookes judged to have “outgrown” its Ferndale campus.

“People sometimes say that Brookes never stops building and refurbishing,” Prof Fitt said.

“But you have to remember the average lifetime of a university building is 30 years.

“So if you have 30 buildings you’d better do one a year or you are going to fall behind.

“We have way more than 30. If we said no building for five years, we would not be in a good position.”

News of a 10-year investment plan will surprise some, with higher education under continuing pressure. The new Vice-Chancellor is reassuring.

“We are not having to take out a loan. The reality is that if we do not want our university to crumble around us, we have to generate money.

“Because universities do not have shareholders, it allows us to make surpluses and plough them back. We take the money we receive from student fees and reinvest it to make sure the students’ experience here remains world class and they get value for their money.

“It is one of the reasons I like working for a university. We don’t have shareholders to keep happy. “ He certainly has years of experience in the university sector. A specialist in industrial applied mathematics research, he was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford.

He arrived at Oxford Brookes in March 2011 from the University of Southampton where he had worked for 22 years, latterly as the head of the mathematics department and then Pro Vice-Chancellor, International.

He had served at Brookes as Pro Vice-Chancellor, with a remit that covered all research and knowledge exchange at the university.

His own research has centred on two main areas: the flow of glass, food and other complex fluids and flow, and deformation in human eyes, and he is a long-standing member of the Council of the IMA (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications).

Significantly, he has also served as a member of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Board, the body that has successfully bid for millions of pounds of central government investment for science and transport schemes to secure Oxfordshire’s place as an engine of UK growth.

He said: “A key problem facing Oxfordshire is the lack of affordable housing and where to build that housing. The interesting thing happening is that the universities, businesses and lots of stakeholders are now all sitting down together around the same table to discuss what we can do.

“The same people sat down and delivered the area’s ‘city deal’ and the ‘strategic economic plan’. I think the universities can have a big influence on that regional agenda. But if the plan is to squeeze everything into the centre of historic Oxford, it is not going to work.”

So with Brookes having confirmed that it will begin moving from its Wheatley campus in 2016-17, could the university have a ready made site for new homes outside Oxford?

The Vice-Chancellor said: “We own the land at Wheatley. There have been many suggestions about what our Wheatley campus could be used for such as a science park, a hotel or housing. At the moment no options are closed to us.”

The Faculty of Business will be the the first department to move. But news that Brookes is to move its teaching, research and support activity from Wheatley to Headington, has led to renewed fears among residents’ groups in Oxford that have complained of being “swamped by students”.

Sietske Boeles, for the East Oxford Residents Associations Forum, said: “There is no doubt that Oxford Brookes’ plans to close its Wheatley campus and move thousands of students to Headington will add to the traffic congestion.

“Many of these students don’t live in Oxford, as evidenced by Brookes’ own figures, and each day they bring a large number of cars into Oxford. It’s critical that Brookes provides the local authorities with an updated travel plan regarding this impending move.”

But Prof Fitt dismisses suggestions that the Wheatley campus closure will have any signficant impact on Headington and East Oxford.

He said “The actual number of those who live in student accommodation at Wheatley stands at 88. Way more of our staff make the journey from Oxford to Wheatley at present than the other way around. The majority of our students already live in Headington. So this is not going to make a great deal of difference.”

He stresses that no increase in student numbers is being proposed, with the overall total having remained close to 12,000 for a decade. The introduction of £9,000 student fees only led to a decrease in part-time students at Brookes.

A significant increase is proposed in the number of teaching places for nurses, with the number to rise by 30 per cent to 1,300, as reported in this paper last week. While Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust stands to benefit from the increase, with many of the nurses expected to work at the John Radcliffe Hospital, the extra nurses will be taught in Swindon.

An Oxford City Council policy a few years ago was drawn up that made clear Oxford and Brookes universities would not be allowed to move into new buildings until they each had fewer than 3,000 students living in city homes.

East Oxford residents’ groups have long expressed doubts that Brookes had achieved this target, designed to reduce pressure on the private rental sector, but the Vice-Chancellor says Brookes is now meeting the council’s demands.

“People say we are taking more and more students. It is not true. Brookes has not seen any great expansion. Knocking down buildings and putting up new ones has created a great deal of space.”

Looking ahead, he believes: “The next spending review will be hard for everyone as, not just universities. It could see less money for research. Austerity, I think, is going to continue.”

Nevertheless, plans are now advanced to upgrade biology laboratories in Headington and provide a better home for the university’s celebrated collection of microscopes. The Sinclair will see major refurbishment work.

Leading me around the university’s completed new buildings, he pauses to gesture towards the vast piazza that now looks on to London Road.

“We are putting some art out there. It will be a piece called the Rain Pavilion.”

The piece, a collaboration project between Oxford Brookes’ architecture and art students, may be designed to celebrate rain. But the dark clouds of the gathering fiscal squeeze look to be bypassing Oxford Brookes University.