Imperial College London statement on its campus at Wye

Imperial will not proceed with its investigations into delivering a world-class research centre at Wye - News

For immediate use
Thursday 14 September 2006

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Deputy Rector of Imperial College London, today announced that he would be recommending that the College does not proceed any further with its investigation into delivering a world-class research centre, science hub and associated housing at its campus in Wye.

Since the announcement of the Concordat between Imperial, Ashford Borough Council and Kent County Council in December 2005, the College has been exploring its vision for sustaining and developing the campus in Wye that could have secured jobs locally and regionally, and led to scientific developments of global importance.

Having carefully considered all the issues involved, the project team has concluded that none of the scenarios for the vision would represent a wise, viable or desirable investment of public funds for Imperial College and Wye. As a result, the Deputy Rector will recommend to the College's Management Board on 29 September that the College should no longer pursue the scientific vision for Wye.

Professor Borysiewicz said: "I would personally like to thank the people in Wye and surrounding villages, particularly the Parish Council and other elected representatives, for their patience and co-operation over the last few months. As I said at the first public meeting in January, the views of local people would play a significant part in our decision-making process and I have appreciated the responses that have been received.

"The College remains committed to the high quality teaching that takes place at Wye and we will continue to support academic teaching activity there. This includes the highly successful Imperial College/University of Kent Applied Business Management undergraduate degree courses, Masters degrees and the Distance Learning Programmes. As we stated in December 2005, we will review the arrangements with University of Kent in 2011.

We have no current plans to expand research and development at Wye, and we will not be instigating a search for a replacement to the vision project. Any decisions on future activity at Wye campus will, of course, be shared with local residents at the earliest opportunity."

For more information please contact:

Sebastian Hanley
FD Tamesis
Tel: 020 7269 9357
Email: sebastianh@tamesis-pr.com