Media Release
April 16 2008
New face for UniSA in Mt Gambier
In
his first official visit as UniSA Vice Chancellor,
Professor Peter Høj will arrive in
Mt
Gambier this Friday to open the University’s $1.5 million building -
the new face of UniSA’s campus in the South East.
The opening of the new building and the visit will include a unique celebration of the first UniSA graduates to have completed their entire university degree studies in Mt Gambier.
The celebration, to be attended by several of the university’s most senior academics and carried out in formal ceremonial attire, will see more than 40 graduates in nursing and accounting receive their degree parchments following their official conferral last week.
Professor Høj said the synergy between the opening of the new UniSA building and the celebration of Mt Gambier’s first cohort of graduated students was evidence of significant capacity building in regional South Australia.
“We have seen this come together in such a positive way and with such powerful support from the local community and strong collaboration between industry, government and the university,” Prof Høj said.
“The day in Mt Gambier will be about milestones – new graduates, a new space to enhance our education delivery in the Mt Gambier region and the celebration of an excellent partnership.”
Spokesperson for the local University Steering Committee, Helen Strickland, said the long term benefits of UniSA’s engagement with the region were increasingly clear.
“What we have seen open up are tangible opportunities to engage in higher education that would otherwise have been difficult for students from the region,” she said.
“The University took on the challenge in 2005 to establish a presence in the region and in doing that they have fulfilled the hopes and dreams of this first group of graduates.
“And because the planning has so closely involved local industry we have the kind of graduates who will move into positions in the community where there have been skill shortages.”
The number of students taking on study at the Mt Gambier campus has increased by 75 per cent since 2006.
The new UniSA building in Mt Gambier, which has been designed and built by local architects and builders, includes new teaching spaces and a new laboratory for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing program.
The new UniSA campus building will be opened in Mt Gambier at 10.45
am and the awards celebration will commence in the afternoon at the
Sir
Robert Helpman Theatre.
Contacts for interview
- UniSA Vice Chancellor Prof Peter Høj office (08) 8302 0500
-
Helen Strickland, University Steering Committee, and Chairperson: SEETA,
office (08) 8723 1057
Media contact
- Cathy Hughes office (08) 8735 1465 email cathy.hughes@unisa.edu.au
-
Michèle Nardelli office (08) 8302 0966 mobile 0418 823 673
email michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au