Griffith Country Universities building new study centre

Country University Centre CEO Duncan Taylor said his organisation will be hoping to establish the study centre for an opening in July.

“It will be a highly connected site, which will entail access to video conferencing and high bandwidth internet access,” Mr Taylor said.

“Even more importantly it will be staffed by people who can provide guidance with the technology and general educational support.

“We’ll be looking to recruit a centre manager and some general academics, but staff needs will be dependent on student usage of the centre,” Mr Taylor said.

Following a vote at last week’s council meeting, council agreed that they would lease the Bank House building at 81 Kooyoo Street to the Country Universities Centre.

The motion was challenged however, by Councillor Rina Mercuri who moved that council should acquire the lease for a building at 161 remembrance drive to be leased on to the Country Universities Centre. 

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According to Cr Mercuri the lease at remembrance drive had been offered to council in an email from the building’s owner.

Cr Mercuri said her concerns of using the State Bank building for the study centre were that the building had only one bathroom and would not fulfill its obligations of disability access.

Cr Mercuri was also concerned that any work to build new bathrooms would be potentially damaging to the beauty of the heritage listed building.

“(The bathroom) is something that our architect will be in touch with council about but we certainly are interested in maintaining the existing heritage of the building,” Mr Taylor said.

“We have long opening hours from 7am to 12pm and it’s great to have a location that is secure close to the CBD and very accessible for students,” Mr Taylor said.

When asked whether the study centre for university students would include a student tavern Mr Taylor said there were no such plans in motion.

“One nice aspect of being close to the Griffith CBD is that students have access to the coffee shops, restaurants, and taverns in town," Mr Taylor said.

“Our students range from school leavers through to mature age, we have undergraduates, and post graduates right through to PHD.

“The popular courses at other centres have been clustered around health, social work and education, which are three areas of employment growth in regional towns,” Mr Taylor said. 

Mr Taylor said he also believed the new study centre would be used by students (from elsewhere) doing work experience placements at the local schools and hospitals. 

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