How a higher education merger could make Adelaide the next-level modern metropolis
DRIVERLESS buses ferry students back and forth along North Tce to the extremities of their sprawling campus … this is part of a tantalising vision of Adelaide in 2035.
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DRIVERLESS buses ferry students back and forth along North Tce to the extremities of their sprawling campus.
It’s 2035 and in the East End, the university has long had its way and taken over a large portion of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site.
The buses glide beneath the glass-walled footbridges that boldly stake the university’s territory by connecting its buildings either side of Frome Rd.
In the West End, there’s scarcely a piece of land the university hasn’t bought and developed between North Tce and Currie St.
Hungry for more territory, plans once derided as fanciful — to build over the railyards west of Morphett St — are becoming a reality.
Here, as it has long done in the east, the university will stretch to the Torrens, providing unfettered public access between the city and the river.
To the south, student accommodation villages have sprung up around the stops of a long-awaited city tram loop. International student numbers have boomed, and thousands live in towers built directly above the Adelaide Central Market.
Those towers overlook Victoria Square, which two decades since its last controversial upgrade is being dug up again, as is Rundle Mall.
Both will host stations of a new underground train system linking the Noarlunga and Gawler lines, a multibillion-dollar project which until now was deemed financially impossible.
Finally, Adelaide deserves the mantle of a “university city” South Australians were promised in the early 2000s. And it’s not just the CBD.
Nearby Thebarton is almost unrecognisable, as technology companies have jostled for properties to build research centres in joint ventures with the university, while the Mawson Lakes campus is vital to supporting the defence industry and is gentrifying the north as more highly paid staff move into the area.
But this didn’t all come about through the attraction of minor outposts of major foreign universities, the Mike Rann-era dream that brought in the ill-fated Cranfield as well as Carnegie Mellon, University College London and the growing Torrens University.
Instead, a major catalyst for the economic transformation of Adelaide, alongside the $90 billion defence shipbuilding program, was the merging of Adelaide University and UniSA to form a “super uni” to rival its biggest interstate competitors and make its mark internationally.
Skip back to 2018 and all of the above remains a vision, a best-case scenario of the transformative effect of a merger officially put on the agenda by the two universities last month, with a decision to be made at the end of the year.
Some would say it’s a grand overstatement, and that if a merger simply averts decline relative to larger eastern states institutions it will have done its job.
But there are fervent believers in the move, none more so than former Labor senator Chris Schacht, who has backed the merger idea for decades and has become a public cheerleader for the latest proposal.
Mr Schacht says Adelaide should be aiming for a place among the world’s great small university cities, such as Edinburgh and Dublin.
He says economies of scale from an amalgamation would allow the new university to attract a bigger share of research funding, and therefore more top academics. And more companies would be attracted to Adelaide to collaborate with a more powerful institution on commercialisation projects, while international students would be lured by courses that give them a broader range of subject choices than can be provided at present.
“It will be the significantly biggest employer when it comes to high quality jobs in Adelaide. That will change the nature of the city for the better,” Mr Schacht says.
“It’s not just the West End, I think the whole of North Tce will have university infrastructure and activity all the way along.
“It becomes not only a cultural boulevard, but a university boulevard.
“The character of the city will change and the next thing that will happen is we will get more student accommodation in the city, so the city will have a lot more life in it. More people, entertainment, coffee shops, restaurants, it just goes on and on.”
The combined university would be able to make more efficient use of resources, likely rationalising some properties outside the CBD while retaining the Mawson Lakes campus, Mr Schacht says. “If we really want to become the leader of Australia’s space industry, if we put the unis together, it will encourage more of those companies to come to Adelaide,” he says.
“If you go round on to Port Rd into Thebarton, that could be a major area for development of research centres that the university could be a major promoter of. It could be advanced manufacturing.
“A merger could take the (Urrbrae based, agriculture-focused) Waite Research Institute from being one of the top four or five in the world to being the best in the world.”
The Urban Development Institute of Australia’s state branch says that “seriously considering a merger is not just a good idea, it’s imperative” if Adelaide is to boost its position in the global student market.
Chief executive Pat Gerace points to a UDIA study tour of the US last year which took in Tech Square, a multiblock development in the heart of Atlanta that combines Georgia Tech university buildings and research centres with technology companies, offices, retail and housing.
The UDIA’s report on the trip says the practice of embedding students with businesses in the Tech Square that are relevant to their courses is so successful that businesses are clamouring to get involved. It says it shows how good urban design can transform a city and educational practice at the same time.
“There’s a massively important role for there to be a push for more students. Having more people here brings vibrancy,” Mr Gerace tells the Sunday Mail.
“Not only does it mean potential increase in demand for student accommodation in the city and along transport corridors, it also increases the demand for everything else — increases retail, increases the food and hospitality sector.”
Much of the debate around the merger has been about the need for Adelaide to have a world top-100 ranked university to attract more funds, the best staff and more students, and whether a merger would achieve it.
Mr Schacht thinks the initial effect would be a drop in ranking before an inevitable climb.
StudyAdelaide chief executive Karyn Kent says rankings are important to potential students in some markets, particularly China, our biggest.
She is not as bullish as Mr Schacht about the prospect of a student boom beyond current growth levels. But she says a merged university could be in a better position to “turbo boost” the economy, through industry links that put more international students to work within local companies and use their knowledge of their home nations to capitalise on export opportunities.
“Our focus is not so much on (student) market share as the value those students bring to the economy,” she says.
Adelaide City councillor and successful businessman Houssam Abiad says a super university could help SA capture a bigger slice of the growing Middle East student market.
He says more foreign students also means more tourists, not just visiting parents of students but others attracted by word of mouth from students who become “international ambassadors” for Adelaide.
UniSA and Adelaide University are expected to release a discussion paper on the merger proposal in the coming weeks.
ROLL OF HONOUR BECKONS IF PLAN MAKES THE GRADE
The top ranked university cities in 2018, according to university experts QS:
1. London
London has risen to the top of the rankings despite the eye-watering cost of living, and soaring rental prices. Its thriving cultural hub, concentration of world-class universities, and great employment prospects for graduates keep it at the top of the tree.
2. Tokyo
The sprawling city is rated the world’s best by graduate employers, and rated as second for its desirability — a mixture of quality of living and how much it is in demand among international students.
3. Melbourne
Consistently voted as one of the world’s most desirable cities, Melbourne was propelled up the top of the rankings by students — who say it’s the third best city to study in the world. What it lacks in affordability, it makes up for with a packed cultural calendar. Its good quality of living mean students are clamouring to study in Australia’s sporting capital.
4. Montreal
Canada’s cultural capital has dropped three places after topping the 2017 rankings, but is still right at the pointy end of the rankings. Its friendliness, diversity and thriving creative industries mean the city of 4.1 million people is rated the best city in the world by students.
5. Paris
France’s capital is renowned for an astronomical cost of living, but its low student fees, accompanied by a wonderful mix of arts, culture and a bevy of world-leading universities, keeps it in the top five.
6. Munich
The home of Oktoberfest doesn’t have any universities listed in the QS top 50, but is lauded by students for its night-life, friendliness and ease of getting around.
Munich also received the second highest affordability score in the top 10 cities, behind Berlin.
Others in top 10:
Berlin, Zurich, Sydney and Seoul.