A roundtable discussion between the University of Tasmania, City of Launceston, and the state and federal governments is the next step towards the campus move to Inveresk.
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Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor David Sadler said the project could now proceed with confidence after receiving written confirmation of funding from the state government.
“The design of the new campus at West Park in Burnie is well advanced. We are now focusing on the design proposals for the Inveresk Campus,” he said.
“There will be extensive consultation as part of the design process, so people will have the opportunity to have their say about the look and feel of the new campus, as well as about issues such as parking and access.”
The build at Inveresk is expected to begin within two years said Pro Vice-Chancellor of Community Partnerships and Regional Development Professor David Adams.
“We’re getting much closer to the stage when we can start talking about formal planning processes,” he said.
Professor Adams said some of the changes will begin to be implemented next year, with associate degrees in Agribusiness and Applied Business to be offered in 2017.
He said the goal of attracting 12,000 more students to the university's Northern campuses over the next 10 years was realistic.
”There are a very large number of students, up to 12,000 in Northern Tasmania, who potentially could be studying who aren’t and we’re hopeful that the new design and new ways of offering our range of courses will be attractive to many more Tasmanians,” he said.
Timeframes and project milestones will be developed during the roundtable discussions to get the campus move kick-started as soon as possible.
Treasurer Peter Gutwein said the state government had formally confirmed $75 million of funding and federal Cities Minister Angus Taylor had reiterated the commitment to the $150 million pledge during his visit to Tasmania last week.
“What needs to happen is that the final planning needs to be concluded, it will need to go through the planning process and I would be hopeful that we could see, towards the end of next year, this project out of the ground,” he said.
Mr Gutwein said he hoped to see the overall program of works completed within three years. “This project will develop more than 2600 jobs during the construction phase and there will be more than 400 ongoing jobs and importantly a $1.1 billion dollar economic impact on our economy as a result of this transformation project,” Mr Gutwein said.