Construction begins on middle campus

UCT is constructing two multi-million-rand buildings on middle campus to increase its student enrolment number of graduates in the next few years.

Construction has already started on the new School of Economics and the Student Administration buildings, and both are set to be completed in time for the 2011 academic year.

Geoffrey de Wet, head of the Physical Planning Unit in the Properties and Services Department, said the government had approved UCT's enrolment plan and performance targets to increase student intake from 21 800 in 2005 to 24 000 by 2010.

The buildings will cost R158 million, of which R102 million will come from the Department of Education.

The Student Administration building will accommodate the Admissions Office, the Student Housing Accommodation Office, the Student Records Office, the Office of the Deputy Registrar, the Exams Office and Doctoral Degrees Board, the Access Management Office, and Student Support Services.

The International Academic Programmes Office and the Council for International Education Exchange will also be located there.

This building will fulfil the university's strategy of moving non-academic units out of academic buildings on the upper and middle campuses, making the vacated space available to academic departments.

De Wet said the diagonal pedestrian route across the middle campus, north of the Kramer Building, will be diverted northwards down the colonnade on the southern edge of the Woolsack housing cluster, and directly in front of the Kramer Building.

Construction vehicles will use the road north of the Woolsack housing cluster to gain access to the building site, he added.