Princess Anne opens campus showpiece

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, officially opened our new £17m campus showpiece as Patron of the College of Occupational Therapists.

The new Centuria South Building on Victoria Road, Middlesbrough, has a state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool for use by sport therapy students and a dental suite equipped with 18 dentists’ chairs and practice ‘phantom heads’.

Dental nursing and dental hygiene and therapy is a new area of work for Teesside University.

The well-equipped, modern labs and teaching areas enhance the adjoining Centuria Building, which opened ten years ago. Since then Teesside University’s School of Health & Social Care has grown from 4,500 to nearly 13,000 students.

The new building, shared with the School of Social Sciences & Law, is vital for our continuing growth in both health care and sport science.

The Princess Royal is Patron of the College of Occupational Therapists, a role she has had since 1986.

Occupational therapy facilities The Princess Royal toured the occupational therapy facilities and talked to staff and students.

'Three of our occupational therapy students - Kate Smith, Emma Pearson and Frances Dodd – told The Princess Royal about their business plan to set up a social enterprise to work with children with autism,' said Claire Brewis, Subject Group Leader for occupational therapy.

Julia Scott, Chief Executive of the College of occupational therapists, said: 'Teesside University is an example of how the occupational therapy professional body and an educational institution can work together to provide the learning environment that generates highly motivated and skilled occupational therapists for the future.'

Professor Graham Henderson, Vice-Chancellor of Teesside University, said: 'I was absolutely delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to the University.'

'We work with employers, including occupational therapy clinicians to run mock interviews with students as well as encouraging them to present a business plan for a possible occupational therapy business venture to help them prepare for the world of work.

'I appreciate the interest the Princess Royal is taking in the work of our University.

An outstanding year for Teesside 'Her visit to open our new Centuria South building is very much the icing on the cake of what has been an outstanding year for the University as we celebrate our 80th anniversary and as we remain, for another six weeks, the Times Higher Education University of the Year.'

Dental practice Professor Paul Keane, Dean of the University’s School of Health & Social Care, said: 'This dental education and practice facility adds to the diversity of our School. The learning and teaching facilities are leading edge and include state-of-the-art skills laboratories. These not only complement the quality of our provision, but more importantly enhance the student experience and lead to our students being even better prepared with regard to fitness to practice when graduating.

'The realisation of this building stands as a good example of the excellent partnership between the NHS and Teesside University.'

Professor Aidan Mullan, Director of nursing and patient safety at the North East Strategic Health Authority, said: 'The NHS dental workforce relies on high quality education and training to deliver the very best care for patients in the north east.

'This new facility will help us deliver well informed and skilled dental nurses and therapists to complement our current dental workforce. It will also ensure that the Teesside community is well served for dental care by having access to an additional leading edge practice.'

Dentist on campus An on site dentist is now taking registrations for NHS patients. Staff, students and the community can register.

Sport and exercise facilities Dr Mark Simpson, Dean of the School of Social Sciences & Law, said: 'This state-of-the-art building, particularly the hydrotherapy pool, enhances our cutting edge sport and exercise facilities and is of huge benefit to our students. It means our expert staff can work with amateur and elite athletes in both performance improvement and rehabilitation. It is a real benefit for the whole region.'

Further developments in sport therapy provision, in collaboration with the Society of Sport Therapists and external bodies, will be enhanced by these new facilities, which include a sport injury clinic.

Both the University and wider community are able to benefit from the clinic together with a sport science consultancy staffed by experienced sport and exercise scientists.

---