Vice-Chancellor open to UTAS remaining on Sandy Bay campus

The University of Tasmania might not be moving into town after all. The Vice-Chancellor reveals what could keep the campus at Sandy Bay >>

University of Tasmania at Sandy Bay.

The University of Tasmania has indicated it is open to maintaining a substantial presence on its Sandy Bay campus, if students and staff reveal the site is their preferred location for a new, multimillion-dollar STEM facility.

The revelation comes after a SaveUTAS campaigner claimed that imminent legislation which will effectively prevent a sell-off of the Sandy Bay campus has finally killed off the university’s controversial city move plans.

On Thursday, Clark MP Madeleine Ogilvie said the legislation promised during the recent election campaign, which would require UTAS to obtain the approval of both Houses of Parliament for any sales of its Sandy Bay landholdings, would be tabled by July.

Ms Ogilvie also said the government wanted upgraded STEM facilities to be built in Sandy Bay, rather than the CBD.

UTAS Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

In an email to UTAS staff which followed Ms Ogilvie’s announcement, Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black said the university would begin a consultation process with students and academics about exactly what STEM facilities were required.

Professor Black indicated the university would consider hosting the new STEM facility at Sandy Bay if that was the outcome of the staff and student engagement process, and if the required funding was found.

“Pleasingly, the government has recognised the need for investment in new STEM facilities in the south and indicated they will work with us to update our STEM precinct business case, which has been approved and listed on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list since 2017, and to pursue external funding for the project given that the previous plan had been to realise value from the Sandy Bay site to fund those facilities,” Prof Black wrote.

“It is critical that our response to the government is guided by the expertise and experience of those who will teach, research, and learn in any possible new STEM facilities, and also by our strategy to support STEM in Tasmania.

“We are seeking a co-ordinated, collaborative path to new STEM facilities in the South involving all levels of government, similar to the successful approach we took in the North and North-West.”

Claiming victory in the fight to keep the university on land gifted from the people of Tasmania more than 70 years ago, SaveUTAS co-chair Mike Foster said he hoped a reinvigorated Sandy Bay campus would return UTAS to its first-choice status among Tasmanian families.

Following confirmation from UTAS last month that its Law School was no longer moving into the upgraded Forestry Building in central Hobart, Mr Foster called on the university to publicly announce that its CBD ambitions were over.

“They cling to the idea that this project will one day happen, even though it won’t,” Mr Foster said.

“That’s why all their properties in the city remain unsold, because to actually liquidate them would be to admit that the project has failed.”

Mr Foster claimed that the university’s decision to move the faculty of business from Sandy Bay into the CBD had backfired, with parking issues and rented office accommodation resulting in falling enrolment numbers and low staff morale.

And while the SaveUTAS group is pushing for the university to sell off its substantial CBD property holdings to help fund any STEM-based revamp of the Sandy Bay campus, Mr Foster said it would require a considerable about-face from the current administration.

“We are in no-man’s land at the moment, and it’s gone on for years now,” he said.

“The university will die with the current uncertainty – staff won’t stay, students won’t enrol.

“And the Vice-Chancellor could be the person who gives that certainty.”

Originally published as Vice-Chancellor open to UTAS remaining on Sandy Bay campus