The campus of the Ústí University could be completed in 2013

Ústí nad Labem - In 2013, a new campus of the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem could be completed. The university mainly needs to succeed with applications for funding from European funds. This was stated today by its rector Iva Ritschelová. The university is building the campus from the old premises of the Ústí Masaryk Hospital.
    How quickly the campus, which should accommodate around 10,000 students and more than a thousand employees, is completed depends on when funding can be secured, according to the rector. The school needs about 2.9 billion crowns. The government has this year backed away from the plan to fund the construction through a PPP project from private sources. It relies on obtaining the money from the budget and European funds. According to Ritschelová, the school is preparing projects so that they can send them to Brussels immediately after the relevant programs are announced. Currently, the university operates in 12 buildings scattered throughout Ústí nad Labem. Students and teachers often have to travel complicated routes across the entire city.
    Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, who visited the campus construction today, said the project has high government priority. According to him, structurally disadvantaged regions, such as the Ústí region, must offer local residents the opportunity to study right in the region and try to retain university-educated people here.
    Construction workers are currently working on the so-called pavilion B, which will house the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design. The construction, for which the university will pay 250 million crowns, will be completed by the end of March next year. The funds for the pavilion were obtained from the Ministry of Education. Upon completion, there will be classrooms, workshops, studios, and, for example, a cafeteria for students and teachers.
    Since 2004, the university has managed to renovate pavilion D, where the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies operates, and where the Central Library of the Faculty of Education is located. In 2006, the heat exchange station was then reconstructed. This year, according to Ritschelová, workers will demolish several buildings in the complex that will not be needed in the campus.