University of Tasmania backpedals on Hobart campus relocation

The University of Tasmania (UTas) has wound back plans to abandon its main campus in the upmarket Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay, announcing that the site will now house specialised facilities for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Vice-chancellor Rufus Black said the university’s “top priority” was to establish contemporary STEM facilities in the island state’s south, and said UTas would lobby the state and federal governments for funding.

Professor Black also intends to sell off two university-owned sites in central Hobart, including a large block housing a car park and indoor basketball franchise, and seek parliamentary approval for commercial development of an uphill section of the Sandy Bay campus.

But land deals will not be enough to bankroll the new STEM campus, which necessitates “complete retrofits” of some existing buildings and construction of new ones, he said. Like earlier campus upgrades in the northern centres of Burnie and Launceston, the Sandy Bay overhaul would “require support from all levels of government”.

The A$500 million (£257 million) project is “an urgent priority for the state” and will spawn opportunities to co-locate with businesses, he said. “Unless we get started in the next 12 to 18 months, Tasmania won’t have new STEM facilities until well into the 2030s, putting us decades behind the rest of the country.

“STEM facilities really matter when so many new jobs and the competitiveness of our existing industries are dependent on science and technology.”

UTas encountered bitter opposition to its plan to sell off or develop the Sandy Bay site, the university’s main home since the 1950s, and use the proceeds to bankroll a move into central Hobart. Administrators argued that Sandy Bay was inaccessible for many students and that upgrading its ageing infrastructure was unaffordable.

Hobart residents overwhelmingly rejected the plan in a non-binding plebiscite. A state government bill introduced in June, which is yet to be debated, would prevent the university disposing of Sandy Bay land without approval from both houses of parliament.

Lobby group Save UTas Campus welcomed the proposal to keep STEM at Sandy Bay and sell off “largely unused” blocks in the city. But co-chair Mike Foster criticised the university’s “irrational” plan to relocate the business and humanities schools into the Forestry Building, a mid-city heritage site undergoing A$150-plus million renovations ahead of its 2026 opening.

He said people undertaking combined degrees in arts and law, for example, would be forced to shuttle three kilometres between Sandy Bay and the Forestry Building. “It undermines the viability of the Sandy Bay campus because two key schools are absent. You need everybody there [for an] interdisciplinary environment.”

Mr Foster said the Forestry Building, “the remnant of the failed relocation project that’s never going to happen”, should be sold off to fund improvements at Sandy Bay.

UTas pro vice-chancellor Nicholas Farrelly said the site would be a “thriving hub of cross-disciplinary education…filled with state-of-the-art, flexible teaching facilities. The Forestry Building is perfectly located for students and staff who are studying and researching the ways our society works economically, culturally and politically.”

Professor Black said the university’s plans for Hobart reflected Tasmanian educational needs and local, state and federal government policies. He said the university had been updating its 2017 business case for a new STEM precinct, originally planned for central Hobart, since the state government this year outlined its preference for STEM to remain at Sandy Bay.

The state government pledged support for the university’s plans and said it would lobby Canberra for funding.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com