Health Secretary to open new £8m Teesside University health building

Health Secretary Alan Milburn is due to officially open the University of Teesside's new £8m Centuria Building for the School of Health today. (Friday 3 November)

The showpiece 5,300 square metre development on Victoria Road, Middlesbrough, is one of the first purpose-built university health school centres in the country.

The completion of the Centuria Building means that the University of Teesside has invested £50m in total on redeveloping its campus in the centre of Middlesbrough in less than a decade.

Professor Derek Fraser, the University's Vice-Chancellor, said he was delighted the Secretary of State for Health had agreed to open the new health building and says: "It marks a very important milestone in the University's redevelopment strategy. Health is now the largest, and fastest growing, academic area of the University with over 4,000 full and part-time students. It is also the academic school which was awarded two excellent teaching ratings this year - 23 out of 24 for Nursing & Midwifery and 22 out of 24 for Professions Allied to Medicine."

On top of this, the University, in conjunction with the NHS Durham and Teesside Education and Training Consortium, has been selected as one of the partnership sites for implementing the Government's new 'Making a Difference' undergraduate programme. This will introduce more opportunities to improve recruitment into the health and social care service and is expected to meet the needs of mature entrants - a key goal of Teesside's mission as the 'Opportunity University'.

Mr Ken Jarrold, Chairman of the Consortium, which is made up of health authorities and NHS Trusts in Durham and Teesside, will also speak at the opening of the new Centuria Building, alongwith the University’s School of Health Director, Mr Paul Keane. The Mayor of Middlesbrough, Councillor Kath Bevington, will also attend.

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