With the ceremonial opening of the final phase of construction of the university campus in Bohunice, Masaryk University completed an eight-year programme of material and technical development. The modern centre for teaching, research and development cost more than 5 billion Czech crowns and is the largest investment in higher education in central and eastern Europe. Splendidly-equipped teaching rooms and laboratory space will accommodate 5,000 students and a thousand academic researchers and employees of the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Sports Studies.
“The successful implementation of the campus project means not only the realization of a hundred-year-old dream of Masaryk University’s founders, who strove to build facilities to match the importance of the second Czech university; it also means we have created an infrastructure that meets stringent international standards in terms of education, research and development while facilitating the development of an entire city and region,” said Rector of Masaryk University Petr Fiala. The newly-built campus has already become the basis for a new quarter of the city, and thanks to future projects to be financed from EU Structural Funds, the campus will become a centre of scientific excellence.
Masaryk University Campus covers an area of over 100 acres/42 hectares and has 24 teaching and research pavilions. It contains an information centre, a central campus library, study rooms, a teaching centre with a large auditorium, lecture halls and a sports hall.
Three of Masaryk University´s faculties – Medicine, Science, and Sports Studies – make use of the campus. Students and researchers of most of the non-clinical departments of the Faculty of Medicine moved to the campus over the summer, with only students of Stomatology and non-medical disciplines staying in the historical building on Comenius Square in Brno’s city centre. The campus and its laboratories are also used by students and teachers of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry from the Faculty of Science. Since autumn 2009 the Faculty of Sports Studies, too, has been located on the campus. A brand-new sports hall with four gymnasiums is open not only to students of the Faculty of Sports Studies but also to all other students of Physical Education at the university and for leisure and professional sports.
From the point of view of regulation and energy management, the campus has been constructed as a so-called ‘intelligent complex’ and its operation (including energy management) is coordinated from one centre. Every place on the campus is accessible to people with disabilities. Support for the visually-handicapped comprises three elements – leading lines, sound navigation and touch navigation.
Masaryk University Campus is also connected by a covered footbridge to the University Hospital, where medical students attend lectures and research is carried out. Lunches and dinners are provided at the university restaurant nearby. Coffee, snacks and meals during lunch-time are available at the café, which is situated in a sheltered walkway over Kamenice street. This walkway will also join the campus to the new CEITEC, CESEB and CETOCOEN centres, which will be built to the north of Kamenice street.
Total construction expenditure (including the reconstruction of the MEDIPO III building, which Masaryk University acquired in the 1990s) exceeded CZK 5.159 billion. A government subsidy from the state budget – through the Ministry of Education – comprised CZK 2.694 billion; CZK 1.775 billion was provided by the state as a returnable financial allowance which Masaryk University will pay back to the state in regular instalments between 2011 and 2030. Part of the government subsidy and returnable financial allowance was provided by a loan of EUR 95 million from the European Investment Bank, which is payable within 25 years. The building of the technical infrastructure and engineering network was financed by the City of Brno to the tune of almost CZK 297 million.
“Masaryk University co-financed the campus from its own financial resources to the extent of CZK 393 million. Together with the returnable financial allowance the University covered 34.4 % of total costs. This is quite unique in Czech higher education,” said Bursar of Masaryk University Ladislav Janíček.
The general designer of the University Campus is A Plus, Inc. Project management. Technical supervision was performed until 2008 by Bovis Lend Lease, Inc., then by Arch.Design, Ltd.