FURTHER SUPPORT FOR REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

FURTHER SUPPORT FOR REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

09 Aug 2021

Deputy Prime Minister and Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce has welcomed the increasing momentum for the University of New England’s growth projects in the New England North West Region.

Mr Joyce said the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University and Tamworth Regional Council has given a major boost to the Tamworth Campus project.

“A new and welcome breakthrough is that the Federal Government’s overall UNE contributions and ongoing Commonwealth funding satisfies the requirements of the NSW Government to release its recent commitment of $26.7 million for the proposed Tamworth project.

“One of the greatest challenges is funding,” Mr Joyce said.

“The Commonwealth contributes funding to UNE to support students, industry and community research outputs in the New England North West in a number of ways including:

  • $7.8m Job ready Graduate Package funding over four years to deliver short courses announced in 2020
  • $2.4m Commonwealth Grants Scheme (CGS) funding for regional and remote indigenous students announced this year
  • $24.7m Research Block Grants in 2021. The University has the flexibility to decide how best to use the funding to meet the research demand across the New England North West
  • In addition, the Commonwealth is providing regional university campuses, such as the UNE, with a higher growth in CSG funding so that it is expected the University will receive approximately $28 million for 2,730 Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs) by the year 2030.”

Mr Joyce said he welcomes the prospect of a UNE Tamworth Campus being established by 2023.

“The will is there, the Memorandum of Understanding has been signed and the funding is now in place.

“UNE has announced other major growth plans for our region with their STEM_Q project. This complements UNE delivering the educational degrees Tamworth has been crying out for, so our students can obtain the degrees they need to forge a career, and at the same time make a valuable contribution to our local economy and that of the nation.” Mr Joyce said.

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