Community & Business
22 May, 2025
Uni Hub is a game changer for local students
University nearing completion
This is exactly what the Southern Downs needed: a little university campus, a one-size-fits-all unit, no matter who you are studying with, what your degree is or how old you are.
The Town & Country Journal toured the nearly finished offices of the CUC Southern Downs last week, and it's rapidly shaping to be a place where uni students can work and collaborate with other students without having to leave town. CUC manager Alyce Lotz, who has an extensive academic background with UniSQ, has been working long hours with board members to get the facility up and running. An official opening is imminent, as soon as new Queenland state ministers settle in and pick a date for a ribbon cutting.
A large and welcoming space, freshly painted by Southern Downs CUC board members, has been created with everything a uni student needs: private rooms for zoom tutorials, standing desks, a chill out sofa space with phone rechargers, desks, tables, printers, and computers with large screens everywhere. There is a conference room with a huge screen for students to present or hold milestone talks remotely. A fully equipped kitchen is available to students. There will be fibre NBN as soon as Those Who Connect do so. The facility and all of the rooms within it are wheelchair friendly.
Many residents of the Southern Downs- mature aged or young- have studied for a degree remotely and to have a space in which you can leave your house, kids, job, noise and connect with fellow students and study is a gift to the region. As well as Ms Lotz, a student services coordinator will soon be hired to work with students.
“Every CUC hub in Australia has gone beyond expectations,” Ms Lotz said. In the remote village of Cooktown, with a population just under 3000, 160 students from 42 different universities have joined the CUC there. The CUC Southern Downs expects no less and is bracing for full activity resembling any university campus in capital cities.
The space is free for students to use as long as they are enrolled. The premises will be open from 5 am to midnight, seven days a week, with swipe card access, security cameras, and safe, highly lit car parking just metres from the door. Ms Lotz and other staff will be available help students during normal business hours.
A mentoring program will develop later this year and a community alliance panel will engage with residents, groups, sporting organisations and local businesses.
“Lot of people are coming in wanting to help and participate,” said Ms Lotz.
Not all CUCs are the same, and the Southern Downs CUC subscribed to the Country Uni Centre model. The entity is a company limited by guarantee, has a constitution, contracts with government, and must meet various KPIs. There is an internal strategic plan in place and a governance model.
The CUC Southern Downs building, located in a wing of TAFE in Warwick, took seven weeks to fit-out with a very tight budget. Upcycled furniture and desks were repurposed and cleaned up; chairs were found; painting was done by the board. Most of the big money went into IT and security for students. The commitment shows and there is understandable pride in how the space is shaping up.
“We still need a vacuum cleaner”, Ms Lotz chuckles. Motivational posters and bright, shiny objects to cheer on students will soon arrive.
For CUC Southern Downs chair Vic Pennisi, shaping the organisation and the facility was almost second nature. Not only has he run successful businesses before he entered politics, he and Mrs Pennisi put four children of his own through university – three of them at the same time. Vic wonders if more young people might stay in the Southern Downs if they can successfully study for their degrees without leaving.
“If we get this singing,” he says, “we hope to expand and do outreach to the villages within our reach.”
