The University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering is set to invest £21 million in the first stage of an exciting expansion project designed to ensure students continue to benefit from world-class labs and teaching space.

The project will kick off with the construction of an Engineering Graduate School at the corner of Broad Lane and Newcastle Street, which will become the centre of the faculty’s postgraduate research and postgraduate teaching activities.

It will house collaborative and interdisciplinary research groups and has been planned to enable the growth of the faculty’s postgraduate offer. Building work for the School will begin in November 2011 and is expected to be complete by August 2013.

The Engineering Graduate School will be the first step in a series of planned improvements to buildings and teaching facilities, with the aim of extensively remodelling and refurbishing the faculty’s estate and creating more teaching space for the University.

In addition to new, purpose built buildings, the University will gain additional state-of-the-art lecture theatres, teaching labs and flexible teaching spaces. These will be designed to provide students with the best possible facilities while improving their student experience.

The University’s Faculty of Engineering is one of the biggest and most widely recognised in the UK, with a global reputation for excellence. It has a long tradition of working with industry including Rolls-Royce, Network Rail and Siemens. Its industrial successes are exemplified by the award-winning Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing and the new £25 million Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC).

Recently the AMRC announced the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) in response to the continued success and recent rapid changes in the scale of operations arising from further significant investment and development in and around the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. Professor Keith Ridgway OBE who has been a director of the AMRC since it was launched in 2001, has been named as Executive Dean and Director of the AMI.

Embracing the AMRC, Nuclear AMRC, Composite Centre and Knowledge Transfer Centres, the AMI is a self standing centre for research, knowledge exchange and location for teaching and learning within the academic structure of the University.

The Faculty of Engineering will also be recruiting 20 more world-class engineering academics in the coming months to complement the expansion of the faculty, ensuring that students have the best possible learning experience at all times.

Professor Mike Hounslow, Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said: “The city and the University of Sheffield have a world-wide reputation for quality in engineering. I am delighted that we can make these investments now to build on that reputation, offer even better facilities and teaching to our students and make an impact on the UK and regional economy.”