Just over six months after taking part in a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of DMU’s spectacular campus transformation project, Dr Jonathan Choi has returned to see the remarkable progress of the landmark Fletcher redevelopment.
RISING: Prof Shellard and Dr Choi at the edge of the footprint of the new creative centre
Dr Jonathan Choi’s Sunwah Foundation, the charitable arm of his global business conglomerate Sunwah Group, has donated a substantial sum of money to create a Jonathan KS Choi Creative and Cultural Centre within the campus redevelopment, on a large site where the old students’ union, ceramics block and Fletcher complex previously stood.
The new development, which will form the centrepiece of the redevelopment, will also house state-of-the-art homes for the world-renowned departments of Art, Architecture and Design, which includes a creative hub for fashion and textiles.
Dr Choi was able to stand in front of the first couple of floors of his namesake centre which is rapidly rising up from a development site which at the end of July last year was a pile of rubble.
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At that time, Dr Choi took part in a groundbreaking ceremony with DMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dominic Shellard to officially mark the start of the work.
On his return last week, Dr Choi was also able to leave his mark by signing his name into the wet concrete of one of the floors of the Creative and Cultural Centre alongside the initials of Professor Shellard.
As previously reported, Dr Choi was paying a visit to DMU to announce he was making another generous investment to forge closer links between the University and his business conglomerate to promote education and global links.
DMU said it would be taking out a lease on the Great Hall of Leicester Castle, parts of which date back to the 11th century, and restore it for use as the Dr Jonathan KS Choi Business School, which would bring world-renowned academics and international students to the city.
Dr Jonathan Choi has enjoyed a long-standing and fruitful relationship with DMU via the Sunwah International Business School, based at Liaoning University in mainland China, where visiting DMU academic staff have, since 2004, been preparing students for study in Leicester, resulting in more than 1,000 alumni working in China today with strong links to DMU and the city.
GREAT VIEW: Dr Choi in Fletcher Tower overlooking the development site
He is now keen to support the university, and Leicester, still further, by helping to build on DMU’s excellent reputation in the field of Business and Management and develop a world-leading business school with global academic links.
The proposals, which are supported by Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, would ensure that the castle and its environs were reinvigorated and allow the university’s campus to extend into the Castle Quarter. They would ensure that the area plays a key role in the Mayor’s Connecting Leicester strategy and turn it into a vital part of the city’s tourist trail, which connects the Leicester of today with its ancient past.
During the groundbreaking ceremony in July last year, Dr Choi said: “It is a proud day for me, not only because it represents the strengthening of links between my native country and Great Britain, and in particular this great and creative university, but also because these links symbolise a trend that I have been advocating for years: that countries should come close together and, in doing so, arrive at a better understanding of their respective strengths and aspirations.”
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FLASHBACK: Dr Choi and Professor Shellard at the groundbreaking in July 2014
Posted on Tuesday 24 February 2015