“Nomadic” academics can bring some of the benefits of universities to “left behind” towns, according to one of the founders of a co-working project soon to launch in an old UK shopping centre.
After some false starts, Eric Lybeck, a lecturer in the University of Manchester’s Institute of Education, is set to launch the first iteration of a WeWork-style hub, now called the Engine Room, in Southport, envisaged as a place where academics who live far away from campuses can work alongside colleagues at other universities.
Southport was chosen as a site for the project, according to Dr Lybeck, because it is a “dormitory town” that is looking to diversify its economy away from seasonal seaside tourism and is nestled in between several major universities in north-west England.
The space occupies one of several empty units in the Victorian Wayfarers Arcade – a Grade II-listed building off the town’s main thoroughfare, Lord Street.
