Uni's £75m business school to welcome first students

The Cavendish Building is set to open to students on 19 September

The University of Derby's new £75m business school is set to open to students.

Construction of the Cavendish Building on Agard Street, which features a virtual reality suite and a mock-up stock market financial trading room, finished in August.

The university says small businesses and start-ups will also be able to use the building, which is due to open on 19 September.

Prof Keith McLay, deputy vice chancellor at the University of Derby said: "What the building is about is redefining business education for the 21st century. It's about connecting our students and staff with the industry."

Professor Keith McLay said the features replicated a real-life trading floor

Prof McLay said the university had been aiming to become more engaged with industry over the past two years.

"We've been able to relocate our business school from the Kedleston Road site and grow our provision here through this building.

"We've brought in industries to co-locate and co-create with students and staff to create a vibrancy for business education for the 21st century. This building is emblematic of that," he said.

Prof McLay said the design of facilities at the new business school aimed to replicate real-life working scenarios.

"Go to the stock exchanges of London, New York and Paris, we have recreated similar here with Bloomberg software, with London Stock Exchange Group software, so our students can get that real live experience of working on a trading floor.

"We have virtual reality suites where they will be using headsets in which they can recreate scenarios in the workplace or trading floor," he said.

The university wants the new building to be net zero carbon

The university said its aim was for the city centre building to be net zero carbon in both its construction process and operational management.

"We had to use materials, the introduction of light and the natural world to ensure that we met that target," Prof McLay said.

"As a result, we have a very open, airy, light building. It has some unique features as well.

"We have renaissance Spanish steps that you might see in the Vatican City in Rome," he said.

The building also has a tree of knowledge in its central atrium and living walls featuring plants and foliage.

The new building is expected to welcome thousands of students in the coming years

The university announced plans in June to merge its four colleges into two, which a spokesperson said was to "ensure the university's long-term sustainability".

Prof McLay said: "The cost of the building is such that we've had a long-term investment decision to commit ourselves to building in the city centre, to grow our provision and grow our size and scale of the university in the heart of the city.

"That's how we have been able to ensure that the University of Derby is very sure footed for the future and its investment in buildings of this type is to ensure that we can provide education for the higher education sector, which is committed for the 21st century."