A new £15 million facility at the University of Bristol is set to boost the future of engineering education in Bristol.

Structural work to the new wing of the Queen’s Building, which houses many of the university’s engineering
research and teaching facilities, has now been completed (a special topping-out ceremony was held on 22 February) — ahead of its opening in the autumn.

The 1,435m² new wing will house ‘state of the art’ equipment, a new Electrical Engineering Teaching Laboratory and a substantial amount of flexible teaching and learning space; the number of students in the faculty is due to increase by 13% — to 3,400 — by 2019.

A £500,000 donation was received from John Partridge of the Sonardyne Group, which designs acoustic positioning, inertial navigation and motion sensing systems, plus wireless sub-sea communications.

He said: “I benefitted enormously from the education I received at Bristol, and I feel passionate about students in the future having access to the best courses, facilities and teaching.

“The opportunity to enthuse young people and encourage them to pursue a career in engineering is really exciting. They will boost Britain’s talent pipeline, which in turn will benefit industry as a whole.”

Professor Andrew Nix, the university’s Dean of Engineering, said: “Part of our teaching ethos at Bristol is to prepare students for life after graduation, and learning on the most up-to-date equipment is an essential part of that.

“Both the city and the university have a rich engineering history; we hope the new facilities, alongside our plans to expand student numbers, will cement this position and help to address the shortfall of skilled engineers in the UK.”