University of Derby supports plans to build new student accommoda­tion in city centre

The University of Derby has backed plans to build new student flats in the city centre.

Developer Jensco (Derby) Limited has applied to Derby City Council to build student accommodation in Agard Street next to One Friar Gate, the £20m striking copper box which is to house the University’s Derby Law School.

If the plans are approved, the new accommodation block, known as Agard Court, will house 244 one-bed en-suite rooms arranged in 45 clusters of between four and six units.

There would also be communal rooms available, comprising of kitchen, dining and lounge facilities.

Hari Punchihewa, Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director at the University of Derby, said: “The University is committed to providing all our first-year and overseas students access to University halls of residence and, although we have circa 2,100 bed spaces within Derby, access to high-quality modern student accommodation is essential in the current highly competitive educational market.

“We are expanding our international postgraduate student offering to take advantage of the world-class engineering in the local area.

“We are also setting up an International Institute for Policing in the recently acquired One Friar Gate Square. These initiatives will attract not only local research students but also overseas students.

“All these students will require contemporary student accommodation therefore a residential development, especially near to One Friar Gate Square and our current residences, is very attractive to the students and economical for us to manage.”

Earlier this year, the University of Derby signed a lease for One Friar Gate Square which had been vacant since 2013, when the building was first built.

Spread over five storeys, the building will include an open plan specialist law library, modern and well equipped teaching and lecture rooms as well as a court room.