Relocation of the University of Tasmania campus from Newnham from Inveresk is about much more than the bricks and mortar campus.
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The biggest project undertaken by the university in the North and possibly the state, the Northern Expansion Transformation Project will aim to transform all facets of the university.
“We are building a new university in many ways, not just a campus.”
Those words were from the project’s director James McKee, who was appointed to the post in late October.
About two months in, he says he has developed a strong passion for the project.
“You really have to focus on the academic, what are you going to achieve at the end of the day,” he said.
He said the next phase of the project, the master plan stage, was about to get underway and the community and industry in Launceston had begun to embrace the project.
Architectural firm, McBride Charles Ryan (MCR), has been contracted to develop the master plan, which will involve extensive consultation over coming months.
MCR recently delivered the master plan for the new University of Tasmania campus at West Park in Burnie
“We are in this moment, the community has started to dream a bit, we are hearing it from the council, and from the community, so I think we can create something here...we need to think beyond the buildings.”
Mr McKee, who formerly worked for the Governor-General’s office said one of his strengths was to bring an outsider’s perspective to the project.
“I think one of my observations is that it is difficult for people outside the university to understand the size and complexity of how the uni works,” he said.
“Coming from the outside it’s useful because I can convey to people what those challenges are.”
THE FUTURE OF LEARNING SPACES
Existing use of the Inveresk campus and the surrounding areas will help to inform the future direction of the campus and the design brief that will be filled in the coming months.
Mr McKee said learning was being delivered differently today than it was “20 years ago” so the new campus environment had to reflect those changes.
“What is that [learning] going to look like in 20 or 30 years’ time?” he said.
University of Tasmania pro-vice-chancellor community, partnerships and regional development David Adams said extensive community consultation prior to the project receiving funding had raised the issue of the changing nature of education in Tasmania.
“A lot of students nowadays, they want a whole range of experiences rather than saying, for example, an architecture degree we would offer a whole range of experiences around design,” Professor Adams said.
“It gives them [the students] much more of an open door to come in rather than nailing their colours to the mast upfront.”
Professor Adams said there had been extensive community and industry consultation on the project that had talked about what would attract people to a campus and also what they would like to learn from a 21st century university.
Technology has also changed the way the university delivers its content – with courses structured with a combination of online and on-campus studies as well as associate degrees that can be done outside of traditional hours.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
University Architect Kirsten Orr will be leading the design and master plan stage of the redevelopment and said there were several things it would try to consider.
“The potential for Launceston is for it to become a really vibrant university town and there are a number of models overseas where the students have become part of the local economy,” she said.
She said that vibrancy and energy was not currently found at Newnham because of its segregation.
“The challenge will be to draw students to Inveresk and back to the city through different strategies, so students have this seamless move.”
Professor Orr said the design of the new campus would work withing the existing “heritage overlay” of the site, or the industrial importance of the area.
“There are also questions around the future of education; the workplace is changing, classrooms are changing in response to different models of delivery,” she said.
“It may be that you won’t have as many large lecture theatres because that content is delivered in more interesting ways online.”
Professor Orr said the design process would aim to use as many local construction and design professionals as possible and was also engaging current architecture students.
“We are trying to involve the students at every opportunity,” she said.
“It won’t just be architecture students, there will be students from different disciplines involved.”
She said engaging the students was part of the university’s push for integrated learning – to immerse them in experiences that would be similar to their career experiences.
AUSTRALIAN MARITIME COLLEGE (AMC)
The relocation of the Newnham campus of UTAS will not include the Australian Maritime College, which will stay put on the current site.
Mr McKee said the project would have become too expensive and time consuming if they had to relocate the existing infrastructure of AMC.
He said the university was confident AMC had enough of its own identity to maintain its existing student base and said the movement of Newnham would give AMC more opportunity.
“Part of the aspiration is industry integration, it is still early days, but the idea is that the industry will relocate with AMC regarding maritime engineering and that in itself does create critical mass in its own right,” he said.
The potential would be for AMC to expand if land is unlocked.
To register for consultation events email northern.expansion@utas.edu.au