Dear Prime Minister,
RE: The establishment of a new Northern Tasmania institution of higher education and training
A group of concerned citizens has come together in Launceston Tasmania to express their concerns and to question the merit of proposed changes and relocation of the Northern Tasmanian Newnham campus of the University of Tasmania.
The site for relocation away from the established site at Newnham – Newnham being just a 6/7 minutes driving from Launceston’s centre – is towards the commercial centre of town and located on two flood-plain sites connected by a proposed footbridge across the North Esk River.
These small parcels of land are:
• sites of former railway terminuses and industrial workshops –now owned by Launceston City Council;
• a Federal Government $10.28m ‘Better Cities Site’ a rehabilitated former industrial site project from1994; and
• are sites where there is considerable flood risk.
The city’s ratepayers, indeed Northern Tasmanian residents more generally, have expressed serious concerns that the $4.5M worth of land will be gifted to UTas.
Moreover, the concern is that the whole purpose of the ill-conceived plan is an apparent disguise for the continued ‘dumbing down’ of the university facilities in the north of Tasmania. The imperative seems to be a transfer of upper level courses from Launceston to the UTas Hobart campus.
A proposal by UTas to offer new Associate Degree courses only at the Northern Campus seems to be the basis upon which UTas say an additional 10,000 students will be attracted to the two new sites.
There is no evidence that this number of new students could ever be achieved via this strategy, particularly as the completion of graduate programs would require students to later move to the UTas Hobart campus or indeed interstate.
It is the view of a growing number of northern Tasmanians that the very significant investment in buildings and infrastructure at Newnham must not be abandoned. Furthermore, it is believed that any new facilities that may be required into the future can be located at Newnham where there is 51ha already set aside for educational facilities.
If necessary, we believe that the Newnham campus ought to be divorced from the UTas Hobart administration so as to be allowed to compete on a fair and more economic basis, much like has occurred with Southern Cross University interstate.
Many people believe that the handsome sum being sought by UTas for their relocation project could be better spent by building onto the present infrastructure at Newnham campus and on other more important projects in Northern Tasmania.
Attached is an open letter that we believe illustrates the Northern Tasmanian community’s concerns, and puts some perspective into the provision of tertiary educational facilities and services in this region.
In preparing this open letter, input has been invited from a broad spectrum of the Northern Tasmanian community including past academics of UTas, and other institutions, all of whom are willing to speak up. Furthermore, the group has facilitated the production of an online OPEN LETTER – http://pmopenletter.blogspot.com.au/
Consistent with the precedent establish by Southern Cross University in 1992 we ask that via your good offices you facilitate the establishment of:
• An Advisory Group to consider the implications of a proposal to dismantle the now amalgamated campuses of the University of Tasmania; and In due course
• An Independent Advisory Group to advise ‘government’ on the establishment of a new university/institute in the North of Tasmania; initially as
• As an academically integrated institution incorporating another university/institution with the potential to establish additional sites at other northern Tasmanian sites as required; and
• Federal and State Ministers jointly appointing an Implementation Advisory Panel to advise on the strategies necessary to give effect to the proposed new structures and announce the successor institution to the UTas network.
It also proposed that the new university/institution develop under the sponsorship of a major metropolitan university for, say, the first three years, while operating under its own name and Council and awarding its own degrees in the longer term.
We welcome comment and feedback on this matter.
Sincerely,
For and on behalf of concerned citizens of the Tamar/Esk region in Tasmania
EMAIL: [LCC C/- LP] LAUNCESTONprojects@bigpond.com 
LINK: http://pmopenletter.blogspot.com.au/
The site for relocation away from the established site at Newnham – Newnham being just a 6/7 minutes driving from Launceston’s centre – is towards the commercial centre of town and located on two flood-plain sites connected by a proposed footbridge across the North Esk River.
These small parcels of land are:
• sites of former railway terminuses and industrial workshops –now owned by Launceston City Council;
• a Federal Government $10.28m ‘Better Cities Site’ a rehabilitated former industrial site project from1994; and
• are sites where there is considerable flood risk.
The city’s ratepayers, indeed Northern Tasmanian residents more generally, have expressed serious concerns that the $4.5M worth of land will be gifted to UTas.
Moreover, the concern is that the whole purpose of the ill-conceived plan is an apparent disguise for the continued ‘dumbing down’ of the university facilities in the north of Tasmania. The imperative seems to be a transfer of upper level courses from Launceston to the UTas Hobart campus.
A proposal by UTas to offer new Associate Degree courses only at the Northern Campus seems to be the basis upon which UTas say an additional 10,000 students will be attracted to the two new sites.
There is no evidence that this number of new students could ever be achieved via this strategy, particularly as the completion of graduate programs would require students to later move to the UTas Hobart campus or indeed interstate.
It is the view of a growing number of northern Tasmanians that the very significant investment in buildings and infrastructure at Newnham must not be abandoned. Furthermore, it is believed that any new facilities that may be required into the future can be located at Newnham where there is 51ha already set aside for educational facilities.
If necessary, we believe that the Newnham campus ought to be divorced from the UTas Hobart administration so as to be allowed to compete on a fair and more economic basis, much like has occurred with Southern Cross University interstate.
Many people believe that the handsome sum being sought by UTas for their relocation project could be better spent by building onto the present infrastructure at Newnham campus and on other more important projects in Northern Tasmania.
Attached is an open letter that we believe illustrates the Northern Tasmanian community’s concerns, and puts some perspective into the provision of tertiary educational facilities and services in this region.
In preparing this open letter, input has been invited from a broad spectrum of the Northern Tasmanian community including past academics of UTas, and other institutions, all of whom are willing to speak up. Furthermore, the group has facilitated the production of an online OPEN LETTER – http://pmopenletter.blogspot.com.au/
Consistent with the precedent establish by Southern Cross University in 1992 we ask that via your good offices you facilitate the establishment of:
• An Advisory Group to consider the implications of a proposal to dismantle the now amalgamated campuses of the University of Tasmania; and In due course
• An Independent Advisory Group to advise ‘government’ on the establishment of a new university/institute in the North of Tasmania; initially as
• As an academically integrated institution incorporating another university/institution with the potential to establish additional sites at other northern Tasmanian sites as required; and
• Federal and State Ministers jointly appointing an Implementation Advisory Panel to advise on the strategies necessary to give effect to the proposed new structures and announce the successor institution to the UTas network.
It also proposed that the new university/institution develop under the sponsorship of a major metropolitan university for, say, the first three years, while operating under its own name and Council and awarding its own degrees in the longer term.
We welcome comment and feedback on this matter.
Sincerely,
For and on behalf of concerned citizens of the Tamar/Esk region in Tasmania
EMAIL: [LCC C/- LP] LAUNCESTONprojects@bigpond.com 
LINK: http://pmopenletter.blogspot.com.au/
1 comment:
Response to the above Open Letter,
Long before Utas existed in Launceston, the former Tasmanian College of Advanced Education (TCAE), which then became the Tas State Institute of Technology (TSIT), worked well for northern, northeast, northwest and the West Coast of Tasmania. The TCAE/TSIT was very strong on Distance Education as well as on internal studies. The TCAE/TSIT offered a range of courses and subjects that could be counted towards degree courses either at the TSIT or in conjunction with other universities. There was, for example, a particularly close connection with the University of New England, Armidale, which enabled TSIT students living in and around Launceston to study extra subjects not necessarily provided by the TSIT. It was possible and straightforward to complete a degree with a wide range of subjects and to have connections with other institutions around Australia, and therefore to keep up with the latest subjects/courses/research on offer. It was a fine, flexible system that enabled teaching staff to design quality courses and for students to get a quality degree. It is why we have the Maritime College and the School of Acqaculture on the same site.
From the start of amalgamation in the 1990s, many of the Hobart university staff have resented the amalgamation that was forced upon them. Many Hobart-based staff felt that the Launceston section of the campus was beneath them, and (mistakenly) that the standards in the north were not as good as in Hobart. There was a strong, but completely unfounded, view in some quarters in Hobart that if a northern student was really serious about studying for a degree, they should move to Hobart!
The TCAE/TSIT was established on land already used for education at Mowbray/Newnham. Buildings, sporting facilities, including tennis courts, a large hall and gym building with indoor basketball/volleyball court, numerous sports ovals, and plenty of car parking areas.
This is the land and facilities that the university inherited on amalgamation. Now the university, with the help of the Launceston City Council, wants to ignore the beautifully located campus overlooking the Tamar River and all the facilities, the ease of connections with the Maritime College and the School of Acquaculture, and the ease of road/traffic access onto the site. Instead the unversity, with the help of city councils to continue its state-wide land grab and 'move' to a spot on a flood plain, a piece of well-used public land, that is only as big as a section of its current main car park at Newnham.
It is time for thorough, independent research and analysis to be carried out into the continued use of the current site to continue as the northern Tasmania centre of tertiary and further education.
Dr Jillian Kosshin,
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