TAMWORTH is cementing itself as an education hub with Council expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with a leading university in the coming weeks.
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The Leader can confirm that the University of Newcastle will sign the agreement after council voted for the move in June.
Following calls from within the community for a university campus to be established in the city, Council director of business and community John Sommerlad said the memorandum was a positive step with council keen to improve opportunities for higher education.
“We have part of a campus here already in the University of Newcastle’s Department of Rural Health based here in Johnston St, it is not only a training campus but a residential one aswell,’ Mr Sommerlad said.
“The University of New England also had a physical presence here within the CBD, but certainly council is keen to develop higher education opportunities in the city.”
Mr Sommerlad said he believed those opportunities would first come in the form of courses, rather than a campus.
“In the first instance it will come through courses and the bigger facilities could potentially follow,” he said.
“With the University of Newcastle, the relationship is in the form of a memorandum of understanding, Council has asked the mayor to sign off on the memorandum in the next couple of weeks.
“We have been working collaboratively with the university to identify higher education opportunities in the city and I know the university is keen for that to occur and so is Tamworth Regional Council.”
“We are continuing to grow at a healthy rate, our growth rate is in the order of 1.5 per cent and we continue to attract more professional people into the workforce in the city through our growing health facilities and our growing professional bases.
Mr Sommerlad said council had also met with local groups advocating for a university facility to be established in the city, but while the idea would be positive for local education, he said such a move was also a business decision.
“Universities are businesses and obviously have to be able to justify the expenditure they’ll make in that particular area. Any university would do its due diligence to work out the financial viability of providing staff at any area,” he said.