Tamworth surveyor and education advocate Mitchel Hanlon has been campaigning for a permanent university presence in the city for years and was glad to hear it could soon become a reality, as revealed in The Leader on Monday.

“The devil is in the detail,” he said. “We need to continue ramping up the pressure to make sure we got what we want and not what they think we need.

“While this is the first, I want to actually see other institutions be involved as well, because UNE is not going to offer technical courses that the University of Newcastle or TAFE could. But I think this is good news.”

Mr Hanlon said Tamworth has the capacity to provide face-to-face teaching opportunities to a campus of up to 500 students.

“We think this is sustainable in Tamworth and are happy to see teaching, nursing and business studies as the initial subjects taught here, because they’re the easiest to deliver,”he said.

“It means that kids who don’t have the opportunity to leave town to study due to financial means now have an opportunity to study.

“It’s not just for Tamworth, but for outlying regions.”

Tamworth Councillor Charles Impey is also a school careers advisor. He said Tamworth could provide the opportunity for universities to teach specialist courses.

“It couldn’t come soon enough to be honest,” he said. “As we know, one single university doesn’t run every program, and nor will we see every program run here.

“But we want diverse opportunities for students living in Tamworth so they can study and live at home and reduce costs dramatically.

“With a growing population I think we are now the only regional centre in NSW without an undergraduate university presence.”

Cr Impey said students had indicated construction management, architecture, surveying and health related degrees including midwifery were among the popular course choices.

“We have the opportunity with the Northern Inland Sporting Centre of Excellence to set up a health sciences faculty right here among it,” he said. “I’d also like to see the opportunity music might provide and also the engineering disciplines with the inland railway coming on board.”

The proposal will go before council next month.