Youth in sneak peek at UTAS accommodation project

THE first Tasmanian students have stepped over the threshold into UTAS’s future and had a look into their own.

From left, Scarlett Neil, 11, Jasmine Neil, 11, and Hayley Rice, 11, are shown around the university’s accommodation site by Adrian DeJong from Fairbrother. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

SOME of Tasmania’s future leaders have been given a sneak peek of the National Rental Affordability Scheme apartments in Hobart’s CBD.

The University of Tasmania’s Melville St development consists of 430 apartments, a university shop front, a cafe and a car park and is on track to be finished early next year.

UTAS site manager Warren Jordan said three of the four towers on the $65 million development had almost reached their final height and the rook was being built on one of them.

“Two other towers have only one more floor to go and the fourth tower (behind the green crane) has six more floors to be built,” he said.

He said members of the public could keep up with the progress of the development by accessing an on-site webcam which updates live every few seconds.

The building will also house the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment.

The youngsters visiting the site yesterday are members of Children’s University Tasmania program, which was launched by the Underwood Centre in July last year to offer educational experiences for children aged between seven and 14 years.

Each child is issued with a Passport to Learning from their school and they can choose extra-curricular activities they would like to be involved in. Once they have reached the required number of hours the children will graduate and receive certificates at graduation ceremonies held once a year.

The children’s visit comes as thousands of people across the state attended university of Tasmania Open Days in preparation for 2017 enrolment.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor David Sadler said it was too early to determine enrolment numbers for the coming year, but there was a lot of interest in areas of social sciences, business and science.

For more information, go to utas.edu.au