Bournemouth University staff and students celebrated the new location of their Portsmouth Midwifery Campus with an opening event.
Attended by the Hospital Trusts who support midwifery students on their placement, the new facility at Lakeside, North Harbour, was officially opened with speeches from BU staff including Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Honour.
Around 80 students are currently taught at the Portsmouth site, which has moved from its previous location at St Mary’s Hospital, with students regularly on placement at hospitals within Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Portsmouth NHS Trust, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and Chichester, University Hospitals Sussex.
Teaching began at the new location at the start of the 2024/25 academic year, with BU teams working hard to deliver a space with the latest equipment and facilities to support and enhance the student experience and give students all they need to succeed in their future careers.
These facilities include skills rooms, midwifery training equipment, working areas and a student kitchen for use each day.
Professor Alison Honour, Vice-Chancellor of Bournemouth University, said, “This is a fantastic facility to give our midwifery students the education and experience they need while they learn, and my thanks go to all at the university who have made, and continue to make, this facility run so successfully.
“The UK needs more trained midwives and I’m so pleased that this facility allows us to educate a future workforce with the skills and expertise the UK needs.”
Professor Anand Pandyan, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences said, “The integrated design of the Midwifery satellite campus at Portsmouth provides an environment to foster learning and support student wellbeing. Such a facility will ensure that the midwifery graduates of Bournemouth University will serve the women of the region well.”
Associate Professor Catherine Angell, Head of Department for Midwifery and Health Sciences, said, “We are proud to have provided Midwifery education in Portsmouth for a quarter of a century, and our students, their midwife supervisors and the women they support, benefit from the wealth of experience provided by our cohesive team who all work between both Bournemouth and Portsmouth.
“This new site at Lakeside offers a modern learning environment and facilities well equipped to support future generations of midwifery students and all those in the wider local area engaged in midwifery education and research”.
For more information about midwifery at Portsmouth, visit the BU website.
