Building capacity - Mount Gambier facility opens
The University of South Australia’s commitment to building capacity in regional SA was further consolidated last month with the opening of a new $1.5 million building in Mount Gambier.
Designed and built by local architects and builders, the building includes teaching spaces, a laboratory, meeting rooms and office space to accommodate growing student numbers in UniSA’s nursing, social work and business programs. The new facilities complement those of the adjoining TAFE campus.
The opening coincided with an award ceremony for the first cohort of 39 Mount Gambier graduates, held at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre and attended by a number of senior UniSA managers and academics.
Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj (pictured), in his first official visit to Mount Gambier, said the synergy between the opening of the new UniSA building and the award ceremony 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.
"A key focus for UniSA into the future is that we become a leading contributor to the development of Australia’s higher education system as the best in the world. The best system will help ensure we have the best educated population in the world and Australia develops as one of the most innovative, cohesive and sustainable societies.
"In our view, you cannot have such an aspiration and contain your activities to a capital city.
"We know there is an economy outside the capital city and we take pride in it."
Prof Høj said that by delivering programs that address skills requirements in the region, UniSA aims to increase the percentage of university educated people in the region from around nine per cent to the State average of 17 per cent.
"OECD reports prove that economies that have a higher level of higher education and access to it are doing better," he said.
"It is not crowding out the people who don’t have a higher education; it is actually lowering the unemployment rate for people without an education. When the tide is rising, everyone rises with it."
Spokeswoman 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.