Community & Business
16 April, 2024
Warwick Uni Hub to 'flip the narrative'
University study hub coming to Warwick
Aston Brown
Work will soon begin on a university study hub in Warwick in a bid to make tertiary education more accessible to students in the region.
Slated to open later this year, the study centre will provide students from any university or higher education provider with study space, high speed internet, support from local staff and a community of other local students.
In 2021, 6% of the Southern Downs population was attending a higher education institution compared to 25% of people in Brisbane.
The chief executive of Country Universities Centre, Chris Ronan, said the study hub is designed to make tertiary education more accessible in the country to address this education divide.
“Universities in Australia have always been very metropolitan centred,” he told The Town and Country Journal. “This is pushing universities to change and say well how about we adapt universities to better fit regional communities.”
“People in regional areas are just as aspirational to go to university in Australia, the problem has been that structures of university have excluded them,” he said.
The centre has received $1.5 million over four years as part of a $16 million federal government funding round announced last month to open an additional 10 regional university hubs across Australia. The centre will make use of an existing former St Mary's campus facility, giving it a head start.
There are currently 34 existing university hubs scattered across regional Australia which support more than 3,400 students studying remotely at over 200 tertiary education providers.
Mr Ronan expects more than 100 students to use the facility once it opens, many of whom study at Southern Queensland University in Toowoomba.
“If you are living in Warwick and have to commute to Toowoomba … [the study hub means] you can study here a bit, and then go to campus … it gives people options,” he said.
“With this space, it doesn’t matter what university you go to, there’s support here for you.”
The Country Universities Centre has helped establish dozens of university study hubs across regional Australia. Mr Ronan said that “career lifters and shifters”, people older than your typical university student, are usually the first to take advantage of the regional hubs.
“If you want to go to university as a mature age student you’d have to change who you are to fit university,” he said. “Study hubs are changing universities and fit those people.”
But Ronan said as regional study hubs build a reputation over time, more high school leavers start to use the facilities.
Michael Hefferan, manager for economic development at Southern Downs Regional Council, said the study hub will give young people more opportunities to study locally.
“We lose so many potential students. It’s not that they can’t enrol in courses, it's that there’s not much support,” Hefferan said. “If you’re going to university, first in the family, and you haven’t got the facilities to support you … it's pretty tough.”
“A lot of people will want to go to the big smoke and that’s fine, good on them, but this is an opportunity for students to actually stay here.”
The federal minister for education, Jason Clare, said university regional university hubs will play a role in addressing inequality in the education system.
“Today, almost one in two young people in their 20s and their 30s have a university degree. But not everywhere. Not in the outer suburbs and not in regional Australia.
“I want more young people to get a crack at going to university and we know that postcode is a massive barrier for young people getting that chance.
The Southern Downs study hub will be based at 163 Palmerin Street, Warwick, co-located with the Southern Downs Industry Education Association. The application for the grant was spearheaded by a committee chaired by outgoing mayor Vic Pennisi, who told The Journal he was thrilled with the outcome.
