The Australian | 9 June 2013
Swinburne University is set to mothball its Lilydale campus in Melbourne next month after so far failing to find a new tertiary education provider to takeover the site.
Local Yarra Ranges council Mayor Jim Child has admitted that there is little serious interest in acquiring the site for education, forcing the council to consider purchasing the site from Swinburne and using it to relocate its offices there as the anchor tenant.
He blamed the lack of interest on State government funding cuts to TAFEs and the trend among students towards online learning. The National Tertiary Education Union has said that so far Deakin University, La Trobe University and Box Hill TAFE have all baulked at taking over the campus. Box Hill received state funding to carry out a feasibility study on taking over the site. Councillor Child noted there had been recent interest from a provider but only for using part of the site, not the whole campus.
“As a position of principle, we are committed to retaining the existing infrastructure for education. Unfortunately, after nine months of detailed discussions with a large number of education providers, there is very little serious interest in acquiring the site for education,” Councillor Child said.
“One recent business case developed by an education provider indicates they would only need part of the existing infrastructure to deliver programs now and for the foreseeable future.”
Swinburne’s remaining students at Lilydale will be transferred to its Hawthorn campus next month. The university said it is still aiming to bring in a new provider by the start of next year.
