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Quality Teaching Spaces: The Refurbishment of the Ramphal Building 2012

In November 2011 IATL and the Space Management and Timetabling Team were awarded £1,000,000 from the University's Capital Investment Fund (CIF) to refurbish teaching rooms in the Ramphal building. Ramphal was chosen because it is heavily used by a broad and representative range of the student population, for example in 2010/11 by:

  • 26 academic departments;
  • approx. 3400 unique students;
  • total of 10,937 teaching hours.

The key proposed outcomes were:

  1. Creation of 'flagship' teaching spaces through provision of high quality refurbished teaching spaces in the Ramphal and Social Sciences building.
    The project intends to refurbish all central seminar spaces in the Ramphal building; in doing so the project will create a flagship building for teaching spaces at Warwick. A significant proportion of central seminar spaces in the Social Sciences building will also be developed to the same standard, with the intention of creating flagship wings of the building.
  2. Teaching spaces that underline the University's commitment to providing a teaching and learning environment commensurate with higher student fees.
  3. Flexible, comfortable and aesthetic classrooms to empower tutors and learners to create an atmosphere where collaborative, research-oriented and interdisciplinary learning is possible.
    Providing carefully designed spaces, alongside support and training, to allow tutors to differentiate teaching styles will improve the student experience of teaching and learning at Warwick.
  4. Technology/AV provision that supports the tutor's pedagogic style rather than constraining or dictating it.
  5. Reduced carbon consumption across the refurbished spaces by using natural lighting more effectively and installing more stylish yet economical lights.

A research project to evaluate the success of the refurbishment was carried out in January-March 2013:

(PDF Document) Read the report

Watch the summary of the research findings:


The questionnaire

Thank you to all who completed our questionnaire, which closed on Monday 7 January 2013. Congratulations to Palwinder Dehill in Sociology, who was the lucky winner of the £50 Amazon voucher.

All the data from the completed questionnaires has been used to make improvements in the Ramphal facilities, to support teachers and students more effectively and to inform the planning of new teaching spaces.