A new after-hours supervised student study facility will open to students later this month, to be located in the space underneath the campus restaurant, adjacent to the Rendez-Vous lounge area on the basement floor.

The facility will initially be open from 11pm to 3am from Monday 23rd to Thursday 26th November, before extending these hours to Friday nights as well as opening from 8pm to 1am at weekends throughout the study week and examinations period.

The new study area includes full access to wireless internet terminals, a newly-installed printing and photocopying facility, and ‘Stand up and Surf’ PCs in addition to toilets and vending machines. The facility will cater for approximately 150 students who will be required to swipe in and out of the area using their student cards.

The facility is intended to act as an initial pilot programme to assess whether there is a sufficient student demand to establish a full 24-hour study facility on a permanent basis.

The service is intended to supplement the return of full services in the James Joyce Library, which this week returns to full operation from 8:30am to midnight on weekdays, and 9am to 9pm at weekends. Prior to this week, library opening hours had been curtailed in order to save on general running costs during off-season study times.

The opening of the new facility has been welcomed by Students’ Union President, Gary Redmond, who had spent time “lobbying senior staff to gain support in reversing the decision” to cut library opening hours earlier in the semester. Redmond commented that “the university is certainly facing difficult times, but we will not stand by and allow library services to be cut.”

A spokesperson for UCD cited the lack of weekend usage for the earlier reduction in library hours, saying that “Sundays are the quietest day in the library, and in the current economic climate it was decided to close on Sundays.”