Northumbria University, ranked within the Top Ten UK Universities for Building by Times League Table, is one of the leading providers of Built Environment Courses in UK. School of Built Environment's Dean Mr. Stephen Hodgson, who is responsible for the overall Leadership and Management of the Built Environment Studies at the university, will be arriving in Sri Lanka next week.

Steve graduated as one of the first graduates in a Building Services Engineering related discipline in UK. As a Chartered Engineer his consultancy experience includes consultant to British Nuclear Fuels Re-training of Ventilation Commissioning Engineers and on-side problems solving over a period of 25 years. He possesses international experience in designing Mechanical Engineering Services for commercial and industrial buildings.

Throughout his academic career at Northumbria his passion has been to develop and run courses which are responsive to the needs of the students and their future employers. Northumbria Built Environment Courses such as Quantity Surveying, Architecture and Building Services Engineering are accredited by the relevant chartered bodies namely Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE). Professional accreditation of the courses is an endorsement of quality and employability of the Degrees.

Steve is an expert in Quality Assurance of Academic Programme and he will chair the Panel to finalise franchise programme with the Academy of Design in Colombo on the initiative of the Business Management School (BMS), Northumbria University's Regional Centre for Sri Lanka and Maldives. He will also meet students and employers, and visit local institutions in Sri Lanka.