UNSW Vice-Chancellor Attilla Brungs, Dean Emma Sparks and Chief Minister Andrew Barr with an artist’s impression of campus buildings. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Work is expected to start on the new $1 billion UNSW Canberra city campus on Constitution Avenue early next year after the ACT Government approved its master plan.
The approval is a key milestone for the long-term, four-stage project to be developed on the Reid CIT site and the government car park opposite.
The university is in the process of securing architects ahead of lodging its first development application for two buildings to be built on the car park land.
The development – which will include research facilities, academic buildings, residential colleges, retail and hospitality – will be built in stages over the next 13 years.
UNSW Canberra plans to build a campus that will provide a modern, world-class higher education and research institution and innovation facilities for 6000 students, including a new Defence and Security Innovation Precinct.
The government said the approval followed three years of work and consultation undertaken by UNSW Canberra with the community and key stakeholders, including the National Capital Authority (NCA), to ensure the precinct is integrated and connected to the city and surrounding environment.
The ACT Government is a significant partner in the development of the campus, providing the 8 ha of land at a peppercorn lease, and agreeing to spend $25 million with the university throughout its development and remediate the site.
It believes the partnership will support the further growth and diversification of the ACT economy through increased student numbers, research investment and the creation of additional jobs, and will generate up to $3 billion in economic benefits for the ACT economy.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said it was sensible and practical for UNSW to expand its presence in Canberra, extend its course offerings and look to address many of the skills challenges the Australian economy was going to face.
The Reid Campus Core will be the cultural heart of the campus. Image: UNSW Canberra.
Mr Barr said there was no better way to boost productivity than to invest in people, skills and capability.
“The vision for Canberra – our CBD anchored on the eastern and western sides by two Group of Eight universities, a major precinct in the Belconnen Town Centre for the University of Canberra, new investment in a brand new facility for the Canberra Institute of Technology in Woden – is very clear,” he said.
“We will invest and partner with our higher education institutions to grow their capability to support our community and to make Canberra a destination of choice for students from around our region, from around our nation and from around the world.”
Mr Barr said there would be no move from Reid CIT to Woden until that new campus was complete.
UNSW Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs said the development would include 14 buildings across the site to be completed by 2036.
“We’re building places for world-class teaching research projects at the moment focusing on capabilities in national priority areas such as cybersecurity, robotics, artificial intelligence, engineering, and of course space,” he said.
UNSW Dean Professor Emma Sparks said that while students would come from overseas and interstate, it would still be very much a local campus.
“Well, we hope that this is very much local, and when we spoke about the sort of commitment to lifelong learning, that’s reskilling, upskilling, as well as our traditional undergraduate and postgraduate programs, so it should be something that we hope will be very attractive to all of those different stakeholders.”
The City Campus will complement the existing ADFA campus in Campbell.
Loading ...
