Liverpool will transform as UWS unveils plans to build new centre in the city

LIVERPOOL LEADER: Liverpool will transform as the UWS, Premier Mike Baird and Liverpool Council unveiled plans for a higher education centre for 2016.

NSW Premier Mike Baird came to Liverpool Hospital to make an announcement with Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun and Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover about a new UWS Liverpool Higher Education Centre.

THE University of Western Sydney will expand to Liverpool next year.

On Monday, Premier Mike Baird announced that UWS would establish a Liverpool Higher Education Centre.

Mike Baird walks through Liverpool Hospital’s Anzac Courtyard before making the announcement. Picture: Robert Pozo

It is expected to open in July 2016, to initially offer a range of postgraduate courses with research capabilities, and a focus on being a centre and ideas lab.

Premier Mike Baird said there was no doubt Sydney’s future lay in western Sydney.

He said Liverpool was strategically placed with an unprecedented opportunity for generations to come.

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“We’re on the cusp of significant opportunity,” he said. “Part of that is you need education and you need to have a capacity to educate our youth and provide the skills required to build those jobs that are coming.”

The population of Liverpool is set to exceed 320,000 by 2036.

UWS vice-chancellor Barney Glover said 38 per cent of the population was under the age of 25.

“There is a very real need to increase the higher education presence in Liverpool,” Professor Glover said.

Barney Glover said there was a need for UWS to establish itself in Liverpool. Picture: Robert Pozo

He said the university was now looking to find 1000sq m to set up its presence.

“I’d like to think we’ll have a very substantial presence in Liverpool in 10 to 15 years ... we’ll be looking at several thousand square metres of space ... so I can imagine a very substantial campus here in Liverpool over that time frame,” he said.

Prof Glover said expanding UWS to Liverpool was also the first step in building a major education focus in the region.

Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun said having UWS in Liverpool was going to transform the city.

Ned Mannoun believes the university’s presence in Liverpool will transform the area. Picture: Robert Pozo

“Essentially what we’ll be able to see is the kids of Liverpool learning in Liverpool to be able to build a Liverpool international airport, as we like to call it,” Cr Mannoun said.

More than 6000 people are employed in health and education in Liverpool.