The Student Room Group
University of Manchester
University of Manchester
Manchester

U of manchester to have a 19 storey high hotel as part of campus plans

http://universitybusiness.co.uk/News/manchester_uni_strikes_hotel_deal


I can't figure the wisdom of this. Why build a hotel in a university? They cant foresee the problems that can arise, congestion for one? And further more does it not insult the integrity of the university? Place for learning and researching or place for making money and sight seeing? Why. Does having a hotel there next to mbs help the students learn to do business? They can have priority placement for the housekeeping positions? Or front desk?

Is nobody concerned about this? Whats the student union been doing?
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 1
ANYONE??
University of Manchester
University of Manchester
Manchester
Reply 2
It's a way of improving access for academics and speakers from very far afield without them struggling to find a hotel. Often conferences held at Uni campuses require halls to be turned over to visitors which is why a lot of lets need students to leave during vacation - with the hotel, you avoid this and can provide better accommodation (in the sense of unbroken lets) to students.
Plus, nearly 400 rooms is not a huge increase in traffic - that's basically just a large lecture's worth of people!

Not sure it's an overwhelmingly awesome idea, but I don't see that it's a bad one.
Reply 3
Original post by Katie_p
It's a way of improving access for academics and speakers from very far afield without them struggling to find a hotel. Often conferences held at Uni campuses require halls to be turned over to visitors which is why a lot of lets need students to leave during vacation - with the hotel, you avoid this and can provide better accommodation (in the sense of unbroken lets) to students.
Plus, nearly 400 rooms is not a huge increase in traffic - that's basically just a large lecture's worth of people!

Not sure it's an overwhelmingly awesome idea, but I don't see that it's a bad one.


I have just read about the "manchester corridor". And reports saying manchester is the most strategic city for uk to expand its economic growth beyond london. So the manchester corridor will provide jobs and such and will be on oxford road. N there'll be a science park. N the oxford road transportation infrastructure will be upgraded to increase flow of visitors. Sounds like they are building an industrial park in the pretext of benefitting education. And the hotel is merely part of this.
Reply 4
Original post by kaffee
I have just read about the "manchester corridor". And reports saying manchester is the most strategic city for uk to expand its economic growth beyond london. So the manchester corridor will provide jobs and such and will be on oxford road. N there'll be a science park. N the oxford road transportation infrastructure will be upgraded to increase flow of visitors. Sounds like they are building an industrial park in the pretext of benefitting education. And the hotel is merely part of this.




Anyone has anything to say about this, please feel free. Correct me if I am wrong.
Brunel (my previous uni) has an onsite hotel and it works fine. It's also a nice earner for the uni (not like they need it).
Original post by kaffee
http://universitybusiness.co.uk/News/manchester_uni_strikes_hotel_deal


I can't figure the wisdom of this. Why build a hotel in a university? They cant foresee the *******s that can arise, congestion for one? And further more does it not insult the integrity of the university? Place for learning and researching or place for making money and sight seeing? Why. Does having a hotel there next to mbs help the students learn to do business? They can have priority placement for the housekeeping positions? Or front desk?

Is nobody concerned about this? Whats the student union been doing?


Nope, nobody is concerned, and I haven't heard so much as a pipsqueak from the student's union.

The university already has a hotel (Chancellor's) and it's the norm for universities (including Manchester) to rent out their halls in the holidays as hotel and conference accommodation. I've stayed in a uni's halls like that for a conference before now, and I'll be doing it again this summer.

It will be aimed at people who are visiting the university (e.g. students on the part time MBA, visiting lecturers and researchers, people with a meeting on campus, conference goers, parents for graduation etc etc.) rather than holiday makers. Therefore, it will be there to enhance the university's core academic goal.

There won't be a noticeable increase in congestion - many visitors will arrive by public transport, 400 isn't a huge number, there are some local multi-storey car parks, and given that the area is pretty busy anyway, and increase of (say) 200 cars per day is really nothing.

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=7596

Original post by kaffee
I have just read about the "manchester corridor". And reports saying manchester is the most strategic city for uk to expand its economic growth beyond london. So the manchester corridor will provide jobs and such and will be on oxford road. N there'll be a science park. N the oxford road transportation infrastructure will be upgraded to increase flow of visitors. Sounds like they are building an industrial park in the pretext of benefitting education. And the hotel is merely part of this.


The Manchester Corridor has been around for years and it is, as I understand it, largely a vehicle for key stakeholders (UoM, MMU, the hospital and the council) to cooperate on various matters that affect the vicinity, including those things that matter to students. For instance, they are cooperating on the bus priority package.

Good universities tend to attract investment, and businesses want to be associated with them. This is no bad thing, and one example of what Manchester is doing is the National Graphene Institute - somewhere for academic research, which has come off the back of two Manchester academics winning the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics, but the thing that they are researching is of great interest to high tech businesses. For an example of what's happened to another university, see Silicone Fen - lots of high tech businesses have been attracted to Cambridge by the university, and I don't think that anyone is claiming that that has harmed the uni or its reputation at all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Fen

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