With the help of the European Development Funds, the University of Aruba is soon to complete a new building that will be ready in the coming weeks. This significant expansion for the institute has been underway since the end of 2022.
The University of Aruba has signed an agreement with the government of Aruba, as the building belongs to them, and together with the European Development Fund, they have been working through the United Nations Development Program to renovate this building. Albo has become the contractor responsible for the job, and it is expected to be delivered by the end of March.
“The building has various facilities that we truly need at the University because, as you can see, we have containers that we started using and other areas, but we continued to grow in our number of students, as well as services and programs,” commented Patrick Arens, Business Director at the University.
The University is always looking at what other programs they can offer the community of Aruba, and this new Maria Convent building is almost as old as the La Salle Building. In recent years, it was not in use, and the last occupants were the Foreign Affairs Department and the Culture Directorate, but they vacated the building in 2014/2015, and since then, the building has not been used.
The renovation was grand and the results are showing to be quite beautiful. The entire Sustainable Islands project through STEM received 13 million euros from the European Union to set up the academic program. For the building, the EU invested 7.5 million euros.
At the end of the month, the building will be ready to start placing furniture inside, and in the week of May 20th, they will celebrate its official opening. There will be four additional classrooms, and students will have access to more study rooms.
Right now, when you walk around the University, you will encounter many students sitting outside under a tree, which can be nice and refreshing, but many times they prefer a room with air conditioning for more comfort.
There will be a library in the new building and some other facilities that are still missing. “The next step is to change two classrooms where there will be a laboratory for Sustainability Island Studies for Research & Teaching.” There are plans to renovate the roof of the La Salle Building, so there is a lot of ongoing work. For the start of the new academic year, it is hoped that most of the work will be completed to warmly welcome students to a new building in a larger and more beautiful university, ready for the future.
