TWO 1970s student tower-blocks at Aston University are to be reduced to rubble to help clear the way for a £300 million campus regeneration project.

Dalton and Lawrence Towers, off Smallbrook Queensway, are to be blown up by demolition experts to launch the key second phase of the scheme.

Demolition Day – on Sunday May 8 – will create university history, with the event the first time two towers have been razed to the ground on a fully operational campus.

A total of 1,500 students will be evacuated on the day but will be able to witness the demolition at close quarters from a big screen on the campus.

The Aston Student Village and new research centres will see the campus transformed by 2014.

The first phase of the £215 million village programme was completed late last year, providing more than 1300 en-suite bedrooms.

Stage two, which will provide another 1050 en-suite rooms by next year, will commence with the demolition of Dalton and Lawrence Towers.

A university spokesman said: “Due to the proximity of the towers to other buildings, businesses and major inner city roads, we will be establishing an ‘exclusion zone’ around the site, evacuating three student residences, and closing certain roads and footpaths in the area.

“However, the main University building and the Students’ Guild will remain open as the demolition will take place in the examination period.”

“We know how important campus living is to our students. They want to live in the heart of Birmingham not in the suburbs of Birmingham, and we are going to be able to offer guaranteed quality accommodation to all first years and all international students.”

The other projects that make up the £300 million regeneration programme include the construction of the first ‘new build’ University Technical College school in the UK, the Aston University Engineering Academy, which will open in September next year for 14 to 19-year-olds wanting to study engineering and business.