New graduate accommodation opened by benefactor

Exeter College has celebrated the formal opening of SKP House, a new accommodation block for graduate students funded by the generosity of long-standing benefactor and Friend of the College, Mr Shri Krishna Pathak – founder and Chairman of the Al Basti and Mukhta group, one of the major construction groups of the United Arab Emirates.

SKP House is part of the College’s redeveloped Exeter House site on Iffley Road, and will provide a home to 25 Exeter graduate students from all over the world. The acclaimed new complex will contain three new quadrangles and 106 student rooms, most of which are en-suite and grouped into small apartments, creating a more collegiate community for graduates based around a single site. Its quality and its green credentials look set to place Exeter at the top of the league for graduate accommodation.

SKP House was officially opened by Mr Pathak on Friday 27 August 2010 in the presence of his family and friends. Guests included Ashok Advani, founder publisher of the Business India Group of Publications; Farrokh Kavarana, a director of Tata Sons and Tata Industries, and a director of several other Tata Group companies; Paul Schoenle, the foremost Traumatic Brain Injury specialist in Germany; Hussain Sultan, former Chairman of the Emirates National Oil Co. in Dubai; Vijay Israni and Shyam Bhatia, as well as the Rector, Fellows of the College, current Pathak scholars and graduate students. The ceremony was followed by a tour of the site, a drinks reception and lunch in the Rector’s Lodgings.

A photo gallery is available, showing some of the highlights of the day.

Photo: Mr Pathak unveiling the foundation stone, by Rob Judges