UWE’s new multi-million pound engineering building has moved a step closer to completion with a ceremony to mark construction reaching its highest point.
Due to be completed next summer, the landmark building is next to the £55m Bristol Business School – which opened last year – on the university’s Frenchay campus. 
The state-of-the-art facility – the cost of which has not been disclosed – will house specialist digital engineering facilities, study areas and making facilities accommodating a wide range of engineering disciplines such as composite manufacturing, machining and metrology.
UWE said it would help attract a diverse, creative and innovative student body to engineering as a profession and help address a future skills gaps regionally.
The development supports the government’s commitment to increase the number of young people studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and the predicted increase in demand for skilled engineering graduates across the West of England.
With floor space of 8,500 sq m, the building will accommodate 1,600 undergraduate and post-graduate students along with 100 academic and technical staff. It will meet UWE’s ambition to become one of the top engineering schools in the country, through promoting multi-disciplinary, collaborative learning. 
UWE vice-chancellor Prof Steve West said: “It has been hugely rewarding to see this landmark building taking shape at the heart of our Frenchay campus, as part of our ongoing commitment to investment in top-class facilities.
“As it nears completion and we approach our move-in date, a sense of excitement is starting to grow among our students and staff, and our industry collaborators.
“Benefitting from a practice-based curriculum and close links with leading engineering businesses in the region, our graduates are leaving with the right blend of industry skills, experience and knowledge for the workplace.
“This state-of-the-art building will significantly improve our engineering teaching and research facilities, ensuring we continue to attract and inspire the engineers of the future.”
UWE has invested heavily in its estate over recent years, including Bush House, the Harbourside building it acquired that also includes the Arnolfini art gallery, and at its Glenside campus, where it has transformed the former laundry.
Two years ago it opened a £9m creative studies building on its Bower Ashton campus which houses industry standard production and post production facilities for film making, animation and photography.
Pictured: Prof Steve West, fourth from left, with guests at the topping-out ceremony on UWE’s new engineering building
