UTAS says $500m STEM centre will need government support to boost economy and suggests Churchill Ave land sale above uni

A $500m plan by the University of Tasmania to boost the teaching of STEM subjects was vital to lifting the state economy over the coming decades, a parliamentary committee has heard. But there’s a problem …

Artists impressions of the development for UTAS (University of Tasmania) STEM precinct on Argyle and Melville streets, Hobart.

A $500m plan by the University of Tasmania to boost the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics was vital to lifting the state economy over the coming decades, a parliamentary committee has heard.

But the University doesn’t have the ability to fund the project without either significant government funding or access to “unencumbered assets”.

The University’s Vice Chancellor Rufus Black and other senior executives appeared before the Public Accounts Committee Inquiry into the UTAS Financial Position on Thursday.

The proposal for a new STEM precinct in the Hobart CBD was first given the tick by Infrastructure Australia in 2017 – before Covid and a sharp drop in international student numbers challenged university balance sheets nationwide.

Professor Black said STEM jobs would be the driver of productivity growth and underpin the state’s future economic prosperity in areas such as agriculture, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.

But the university could not afford to develop a new STEM Centre on its own, he said.

“Wherever you to put it, it would cost you about $500m and right now we could make no contribution to that – we would need government to make a very large part of that contribution,” Professor Black told the committee.

UTAS Vice-chancellor Rufus Black. Picture: Alex Treacy

“The Commonwealth does not make 100 per cent contributions so there would be a need for a state-level contribution.

“We’re well aware of the state’s challenging finances. Where are the funds going to come from for a state-level contribution to ensure those facilities?

“At present, we don’t have a set of assets that we can free up of that scale to make that contribution, so that’s where having unencumbered assets, as we’ve flagged, is a very important part of that … process.”

The Liberals have introduced a Bill into parliament to require the university to obtain parliamentary approval for asset sales.

Professor Black said there was an opportunity for the university to raise money for the STEM Centre by developing housing above Churchill Ave.

”The opportunity to realise value as part of that process would be one way that at a state level, a contribution could be made, given how relatively challenged the state is to provide support,” he said.

He said the cost of rebuilding or upgrading existing rundown facilities at Sandy Bay would be around $192m for “a basic refurbishment”.

“It’s an enormous retrofit cost. Those buildings are extremely aged. There are elements of them that are retrofittable but even then, meeting the basic earthquake requirements, let alone access requirements, the modern kind of facilities that they need inside them is a enormously expensive process.

“So either wherever you do it, and whether it is a combination of retrofit or new build or complete new build, it will cost in the order of $500m.”

The University has moved a substantial proportion of its teaching facilities into the Hobart CBD in recent years,

A 2022 elector poll of Hobart City Council voters found 74 per cent opposed to the plan to move UTAS into the CBD.

Originally published as UTAS says $500m STEM centre will need government support to boost economy and suggests Churchill Ave land sale above uni