UTS unites: Kuring-gai staff and students get to move to the city
September 2015
In less than three months, the City campus will welcome the final staff relocating from Kuring-gai.
Around 30 Business School staff moved from Kuring-gai into the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building in late 2014. By year’s end, UTS will be celebrating another major milestone – the closure of its Kuring-gai campus after 25 years and the coming together of all staff and students at a single, main unified campus in the city for the first time in the university's history.
The journey to unification has been 13 years in the making, and involved a lot of people and planning! After UTS departs, the campus will be handed over to the NSW Department of Education, which has plans to retain the site for public education, so continuing its long and important education legacy.
UTS's Kuring-gai community will soon join friends and colleagues in the city. Credit: Sarah Borsellino.
UTS's Kuring-gai community will soon join friends and colleagues in the city. Credit: Sarah Borsellino.
On the move ...
Around 100 staff, largely from the Faculty of Health (FOH), Library and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), will be relocating to the city across four staged moves between late November and early December, and are sure to receive a big welcome.
Staff impacted by the relocation can find more information on Staff Connect.
Health and education courses currently based at Kuring-gai will also move to the City campus, along with around 3000 students from 2016. Students relocating from Kuring-gai can find out more here.
… To a new home
With the majority of relocating staff from FOH and FASS set to be based in Building 10, refurbishment work has hit top gear and internal relocations have begun.
Level 2: Final cleaning and furniture installation.
Level 3: FOH offices are complete and occupied as of early September 2015. Painting, carpeting and joinery in the HDR spaces are due to be completed in the first half of September.
Level 4: Painting, floor finishes and glazing are in progress throughout the FASS work spaces, performing arts studios, labs and lounges, and ceilings are being installed in the atrium area.
Level 5: Furniture and AV equipment are being installed in the FASS teaching, research and staff spaces. The new FASS HDR space has been completed and is now occupied.
Level 6: Services have been roughed-in and walls are being sheeted-in in the FOH teaching lab, while the space for the Dean’s Unit is nearing completion and due to be occupied from mid-September. The final demolition works to the recently vacated FOH Offices are underway.
Levels 7 & 8: Following occupation of areas noted above, demolition works have commenced in the final areas for refurbishment.
All internal relocations will be completed by mid-September 2015, with the remainder of the refurbishment being completed by the end of October 2015.
Read more about who and what is going where in the new spaces.
Level 6 is fast taking shape, with the Dean's Unit almost complete.
Building 10 impact and access
Although potentially noisy or disruptive works are scheduled to occur before 8.30am and after 6pm, minor disruptions may occur during September, particularly on levels 5 and 6 (Thomas Street side) and levels 7 and 8. Apologies for the inconvenience – it won’t be for too much longer!
Access remains restricted to levels 3 and 4, and parts of level 5, 6, 7 and 8 until the works in these areas are completed. For your own safety, please adhere strictly to the safety signage and do not enter the construction zones.
Celebrating a 25-year legacy
In the countdown to the moves from Kuring-gai, staff, students and alumni will have plenty of opportunity to reminisce and reflect, with three celebratory events currently in the works:
- ‘Farewell’ gala event – early October
- 'Farewell' alumni event – Saturday 7 November
- 'Farewell’ all-staff barbecue – Friday 13 November
In addition, everyone is invited to share their stories and memories of UTS’s ‘bush campus’:
- Share a photo or story
- Post on social media using the hashtag #GoodbyeKuringgai
- Email your story to KGinfo@uts.edu.au.
- Stories that are submitted may be used as part of the suite of celebration events currently being planned.
For a reminder of those special times, you may also wish to check out:
- The Library's Flickr page of archival photos
- Alumni news story.
- One or two stories have already emerged from a campus known for being green – outside and in (including 5km of that carpet!). Find out more here.
Upcoming milestones:
- Refurbished Building 10 spaces completed progressively – from early September–end October 2015
- Last day of teaching and café closes – Friday 6 November 2015
- Staff relocate from Kuring-gai – from late November–early December 2015
- Kuring-gai facilities close progressively – from late November–late December 2015
- Handover of Kuring-gai to the Department of Education – end December 2015
- Kuring-gai courses and students transfer to City campus – from Semester 1, 2016
