The University of Melbourne will press pause on its central role in Australia’s largest urban renewal project, known as Fisherman’s Bend, for at least five years, citing delays in the project’s development and tightening funding constraints in the higher education sector.

The university paid $49.8 million in 2018 for 7.2 hectares of the 480-hectare redevelopment site, which stretches from the city to Port Phillip, from the Victorian government, with the hope of turning it into Australia’s leading precinct for advanced manufacturing, design, engineering and technology excellence.