A LONG-awaited new £50m headquarters development for the region’s top university will be officially unveiled today (October 24).

Durham University has built a new student services and administrative HQ and a new law school and extended its main library, all on a site off Stockton Road, Durham City.

The HQ, known as the Palatine Centre, has been at least four years in the planning and brings together all the university’s “student facing” services for the first time, including its careers’ service, international office and IT and finance departments.

It replaces Old Shire Hall, the university’s HQ for 50 years, which is now up for sale.

The new law school has seen the highly-respected department move from Durham’s peninsula, near Durham Cathedral.

The library extension, which cost £11m, boasts 500 extra study spaces, 30 study rooms, new computer suites and 11.5 miles of shelving. It has been renamed the Bill Bryson Library, in honour of the popular travel writer who stood down as the university’s chancellor last year.

The university, one of the top five in the UK and the top 100 worldwide, is also spending £12m on sports facilities, £10m on World Heritage Site properties including Palace Green Library, £16.6m on rebuilding and extending Durham Business School and £5-6m per year on refurbishing student accommodation and facilities, taking its total investment close to £100m.

Professor Chris Higgins, the vice-chancellor, said: “Our investment in the Palatine Centre, Bill Bryson Library, Durham Law School and the wider university estate underlines the commitment we have to providing students, staff and visitors with the very best facilities in what is a rapidly changing and highly competitive environment.

“Durham is a global university, attracting students from more than 140 countries and the ongoing development and enhancement of our facilities reflects our position as a world-leading institution.”

The Palatine Centre, which some city residents said would be too large and overshadow nearby homes, will be officially opened today (October 24) by Sir Paul Nurse, a Nobel Prize winning scientist and President of the Royal Society.