Page 1965 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 May 2013
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grows the skill base of the economy, and the human capital it builds becomes a key driver of economic recovery and growth. Our education sector has been a key driver of the diversification of our economy and it is one of the reasons we are better prepared to weather the challenges of federal budgets that pull money out of Canberra through cuts to the Australian public service.
The ACT government has a full program of initiatives and investments driving growth in our tertiary education sector. A commitment we made in the last election for a $2 million investment in a project called study Canberra is a key vehicle for this. This is building partnerships between ACT tertiary education providers, the business community and the government to create a strategy that capitalises on the links between us to further grow the sector.
Study Canberra will look at key drivers of growth in the tertiary sector from marketing to student life and career opportunities. There is also scope to extend these partnerships to schools as the University of Canberra is already doing with Kaleen and Lake Ginninderra College. Study Canberra is delivering on the commitment the government made in response to the Learning Capital Council paper.
The new subacute hospital to be built on the University of Canberra campus is another project that will bring major benefits to the territory but also to the university. As the trainer of most of the region’s health workforce, it makes sense for UC to run this new facility which will provide new services such as rehabilitation and mental health services and new student opportunities for clinical placements and research. Also at University of Canberra the government is investing $5 million in a world-class sports hub which will merge high performance sport, community sport, and research and education opportunities in addition to forming the new headquarters for the ACT Brumbies.
Just this morning Mr Barr made a statement on his trade mission to Indonesia and Singapore in which promoting our tertiary education sector was a central aim. The Australian National University, University of Canberra, Australian Catholic University and CIT all participated in the mission as an opportunity to reaffirm existing connections and to explore new opportunities. Mr Barr also led efforts to strengthen the ACT’s connections in Washington, growing the academic relationship between the ANU and George Washington University and paving the way for the education exchanges between Canberra’s cultural institutions and the Smithsonian Institution.
We stand by our record in growing higher education in Canberra and the results speak for themselves. Canberra’s tertiary institutions have reported strong growth in enrolments in 2013; 6,000 new students at the ANU, up three per cent from last year; more than 4,000 new students at UC, up 4.6 per cent from last year; 369 new students at the Australian Catholic University Canberra campus; 357 new students at ADFA and 155 new students at the Charles Sturt University campus. Total tertiary enrolments in the ACT are now nearly 40,000. The ACT universities are a major employer and education is the ACT’s largest non-government export earner.
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