POLICY & REFORM campusreview. com. au
Hubs, highways and hirings
M uniaus
Call it a budding innovation ecosystem or an education turf war. Either way, universities have their sights set on Sydney’ s west. But the vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University argues that this incoming education boom may be brought to a bumper-to-bumper standstill by Sydney’ s traffic.
Last year, the Grattan Institute declared“ Sydney is a city grinding to a halt”, and has the worst car-traffic congestion anywhere in Australia. A study from GPS firm TomTom concluded Sydney has the worst traffic in Australia and New Zealand.
The New South Wales Government is trying to free up Sydney’ s arteries through a raft of road infrastructure initiatives; however, not all are convinced the state’ s plan will work.
And WSU vice-chancellor Barney Glover warns that a failure to deliver a workable solution to Sydney’ s transport problems will stymie the future of higher education. Meanwhile, the so-called turf war proceeds. The University of Wollongong
Western Sydney is poised to become a centre of development and educational opportunity; traffic concerns and job shortfalls must be addressed if the area is to reach its potential.
Barney Glover interviewed by James Wells
recently announced its new South Western Sydney Campus in Liverpool on the same day that WSU unveiled its own plans for a Higher Education Centre, also in Liverpool.
Here, Glover sits down with Campus Review to discuss the major problems facing Sydney’ s west that must be solved if such projects are to create the higher-education hubs the region will need over the next two decades and beyond.
CR: Can you begin by telling us about the new higher education centre planned in Liverpool?
BG: Yes, it’ s an exciting time for Liverpool at the moment. The announcement by the University of Wollongong that it will be establishing a higher education facility there in 2017 and beginning to offer additional higher education programs for the Liverpool region is a great example of how a CBD can be enlivened and developed by educational facilities coming into the city centre. Western Sydney University has a substantial campus at
Milperra – our Bankstown campus – which is about midway between Bankstown and Liverpool, just a few minutes outside the Liverpool CBD.
We recognise the importance of connecting with the heart of Liverpool; from 2017, we’ re also putting in place a higher education centre, as we call it. It’ s about 3000 square metres of space, so it’ s a substantial new facility for Western Sydney University and it’ ll offer a whole range of [ opportunities ] from our pathway programs through the college, to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate offerings. It [ will be ] in a building due to be finished later this year that’ s going to match the high-quality teaching and learning spaces we’ ve been creating on our other campuses. In particular, it will reflect the fabulous space we’ re creating in the centre of Parramatta at [ One Parramatta Square ].
We’ re committed to increasing our presence in Liverpool. We’ ve been planning this for about 18 months. It’ s coming to fruition and demonstrates that Liverpool is part of the vibrant growing heart of Western Sydney.
With universities expanding into Western Sydney, many headlines have framed this as an education turf war. Is this accurate? No, no. If anything, when you see an increase in the number of educational providers – not only universities [ but also ] private providers – coming into major city centres, it provides an opportunity to create educational hubs. In that case, you attract more people with an interest in higher education into that precinct. So, if anything, it is a way of building both opportunity and the sheer numbers of students that will be using those facilities. I think it’ s not so much about a turf war or competition. It’ s about providing educational opportunities where they’ re needed.
You’ ve also got to think about the next 20 years, because over [ that period of time ] Western Sydney will grow by almost another million people. We’ re going to need educational facilities spread right through Western Sydney. Western Sydney University is an extraordinarily important part of that, and we always will be. There’ s a role for other higher education providers to play, too. We’ re in a relatively slow-growing phase of the development of higher education in Western Sydney [ now ], but over the 5 – 10 year horizon, the numbers of students wanting access
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