FAQs
The site incorporates a new home for Fife College’s Dunfermline Campus, its university hub and associated partner/enterprise space, all currently located at Halbeath.
The site will also provide a new home for Woodmill High School and St Columba’s RC High School.
The estimated investment overall is around £250m, with the College element being up to £130.9m and the schools being £122m.
The new campus will have a phased opening during the 2024/25 academic year.
Accessibility is an important consideration, with integrated transport options as part of the planning and consultation process.
The schools and the college will be located in separate buildings within the overall campus.
Within Fife College, in addition to the educational and training facilities on offer, there will also be a University Hub; business engagement and event facilities; as well as various catering and sports facilities. In addition, via the schools, there will be a range of indoor and outdoor sports facilities built as part of the new campus.
The Schools and the College have separate buildings. Facilities will be shared, as required, in the spirit of collaboration and to maximise the pupils and student experience.
Fife Council and Fife College will explore the community requirements and opportunities available on this site which will complement the existing community use facilities in the area.
Fife College has made the ground floor of its main building as accessible as possible to the community, to local businesses and to pupils, with a strong focus on careers through its skills hub and innovation centre, with other community facilities on upper floors.
Fife College delivers education in 13 of the Scottish prisons, and we would support any ex-offenders to develop new skills as we would support any learner. However, all education programmes take place within the prisons’ own learning centres. It is not part of any contractual arrangement that prisoners attend the college.
Low embodied carbon construction materials have been specified for the project and including materials with a high recycled content. Waste will be minimised through the design process and there will be a strong focus on diverting as much of the construction waste from landfill as possible. The College participated in a Net Zero Carbon Pathfinder Project with the Scottish Futures Trust and consequently the new college campus building will be the first net zero tertiary education building in Scotland.
The College has set two carbon targets as part of the design; Embodied Carbon – to measure the carbon footprint of the building as part of its construction – 650kg/m2/pa; Operational Carbon – as part of the use of the building – post occupancy; 125kg/m2/pa. Both targets hope to be exceeded and will continue to be monitored over the project development and when is use.
To achieve the carbon targets, the design includes;
- Enhanced fabric thermal performances beyond building regulation requirements.
- Applying an all-electric heating strategy consisting of heat pumps to generate the buildings space heating and hot water.
- Applying a mix mode ventilation strategy (i.e. combination of natural and mechanical ventilation). Mechanical ventilation will be provided to ensure indoor air quality CO2 concentrations while natural ventilation, opening windows, will provide cooling during the summer months.
- LED lighting with average luminous efficacy greater than 100 lm/W with daylight and occupancy controls.
- Energy metering and monitoring of major plant and equipment linked to the Building Energy Management and Monitoring System (BEMMS).
By implementing the above measures the buildings energy demand will be significantly reduced compared to a traditional design while also delivering to a high standard of indoor environmental quality.
Both of these topics have been managed through the planning application process.
This involved surveys to establish the existing levels of ecology/biodiversity and mitigation implemented in order to protect all wildlife, flora and fauna in this area. Fife College is committed to environmental sustainability and a low carbon energy infrastructure. In addition, the College and the Council are keen to engage with the local community on these issues.
You can view architects’ images of what the new college elements of the campus might look like here
You can also view an animated fly-through of the new campus here [please link to this video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/646856788?autoplay=1
The College design is developed in line with the building standards and all plans will be approved through the warrant stages with Fife Council. In addition, the college is fully committed to support individuals with protected characteristics and enhance the learning experience for students, and working environment for staff. With that in mind, the college are also carrying out an independent “access audit” and stakeholder engagement with students, to ensure the building and its facilities meet the needs of all the users.
We will look to engage with stakeholders throughout the duration of the project through to 2024, plus you can always provide feedback via email: newcampus@fife.ac.uk
