Good news abounds at Corium Club meeting in Hong Kong
21/03/2019
Among the topics on the agenda of this year’s meeting was the University of Northampton’s new Waterside campus, which will include the new Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT).
The campus opened in September after seven years of planning and a budget of £330 million. It is located close to Northampton city centre and has capacity for around 10,000 students. There is also on-site accommodation for up to 1,000 students.
Welcoming the guests to this invitation-only event, Professor Nick Petford, vice chancellor of the university, called for ideas on how it can best serve the needs of the leather industry. There was also debate on what the new leather teaching site should be called.
Rachel Garwood (pictured), director of ICLT, then gave an update on the ongoing work to build the pilot tannery on the new site. Machinery is now ready to be installed, with the wet laboratory and microscopy laboratory expected to be completed in time for students returning from their summer break in September. The overall space reserved for the tannery is comparable to its previous version, but there is now more space dedicated to finishing.
“The new campus has a ‘wow’ factor and we’re absolutely delighted to be part of that. For the first time we are all on one campus which will help the leather students integrate with the university and also work closely with the fashion students,” Ms Garwood said.
The final part of the meeting was dedicated to the Amanda Michel Fund, set up two years ago in honour of a well loved figure from the UK leather industry who lost her brave battle against cancer. Its target was to raise £100,000 to provide ICLT with a scanning electron microscope. Ms Garwood was delighted to announce that the target had been reached thanks to donations from individuals and companies within the leather industry. The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers also matched the funding that had been raised.
“With this equipment, microscopy skills will now be embedded into the curriculum which will in turn be used by the students in their research and dissertation projects,” Ms Garwood explained.
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