A federal government funding announcement of $40.7 million for Federation University’s Berwick campus will free up resources for students in Ballarat.
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Federal education minister Dan Tehan ended a university funding-freeze with a $134 million cash injection for five regional universities that will have implications for local FedUni students.
FedUni opened its Berwick campus last year and the university’s vice chancellor Professor Helen Bartlett said until the funding announcement the university was looking to channel resources from its other campuses to support strong growth at the new site.
“This funding gives us some certainty because the funding freeze really impacted Berwick. The prospect had been that the whole of the university would support growth in Berwick. We now have certainty for Berwick for the next four years … and for the rest of the university it means that we are not going to be channeling resources to shore up new development.”
Financial hardship is one of the main reasons why regional students hesitate about taking up higher education. Or when they get here it’s the reason they often defer because they have to work as well.
- Professor Helen Bartlett
The funding package also included extra cash for scholarships for regional students, and the introduction of an Expert Regional Education Advisory Group to steer the future of regional education.
Prof Bartlett said the university would get straight to work on identifying recipients for the extra scholarships, which will be offered to students starting their university lives next year.
“Financial hardship is one of the main reasons why regional students hesitate about taking up higher education,” Prof Bartlett said.
“Or when they get here it’s the reason they often defer because they have to work as well, so the announcement that the Federal Government will double the number of regional scholarships is really critical for all our campuses, particularly for Ballarat.”
Prof Bartlett said she would happily take on a role on the Expert Regional Education Advisory Group.
“The announcement of a regional education strategy advisory group is … acknowledgement that the one-size-fits-all policy doesn’t work, and will look at what is needed to better promote equity of our regional unis and city unis to ensure and promote grater participation and access for regional students,” she said.
“Regional unis … have a wider role to play than many city unis and we hope this will start to be fleshed out and greater appreciation given of what else we do that requires support and acknowledgement,” Prof Bartlett said.
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