CAMPUS CLOSURE: Uni ditches Noosa base as low numbers bite

A major Queensland university has confirmed it will close one of its campuses by the end of this year after "unsustainable" student growth and numbers.

CQ University Noosa education student Abbey Magee was worried about the uni's proposed plans to close the campus. Those plans have now been realised.

CQ UNIVERSITY has today confirmed it will close its Noosa campus by the end of this year.

Weaker than expected student growth and low enrolment numbers were the deciding factors that sealed the campus' fate.

CQU's Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Nick Klomp said the decision was incredibly difficult, but closing the site was the most viable and responsible option moving forward.

"Since we announced this proposal, we've spoken with staff, students and community partners and we've listened intently to everything they've said," he said.

CQUni Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Klomp.

"The reality is that although we have close to 1000 CQUniversity students on the Sunshine Coast, only 16 per cent are enrolled as on-campus students at Noosa.

"This, combined with lower than expected student growth in the region, makes our continued physical presence at Noosa unsustainable in the long term."

Professor Klomp said that in making the decision, the university weighed up many different options, scenarios and suggestions to minimise the impact to students moving forward.

"Based on their feedback, we plan to put in place measures to continue delivering courses to a large majority of our Noosa students moving forward," he said.

Noosa was one of three CQU campuses to face the chop in its latest attempt to reduced costs.

Amid financial challenges on the back of COVID-19 restrictions, CQUniversity announced the closure of its Noosa, Biloela and Yeppoon delivery sites.

Further cost cutting saw CQU receive a total of 219 expressions of interest for voluntary separation from staff, of which 182 were accepted.

Today's actions, as well as cost reductions to date, will recover $28m annually for the university.

The Noosa Campus is proposed to close on December 24 2020.

Originally published as CAMPUS CLOSURE: Uni ditches Noosa base as low numbers bite