Curtin University of Technology opened a sister campus in Sydney earlier this week to take advantage of the city’s international profile and appeal to overseas students wanting to study in Australia.
Curtin University of Technology opened a sister campus in Sydney earlier this week to take advantage of the city’s international profile and appeal to overseas students wanting to study in Australia.
Simply titled Curtin Sydney, the campus has been established in collaboration with IBT Education Limited, Australia’s only listed higher education company.
Curtin will control the curriculum, assessment and academic standards of the programs and IBT will be responsible for course delivery.
The university’s vice chancellor Professor Lance Twomey said the new campus in the Rocks area would initially offer three degree courses in accounting, marketing and a double major in management and marketing. Other disciplines could be introduced down the track.
Campus director, adjunct professor Doug Hinchliffe, will head Curtin Sydney and the first 100 students are expected to start their studies in July.
There are also plans to move to larger facilities as student numbers grow, with Professor Twomey saying enrolment could expand to the thousands.
Although its focus is international students, Curtin Sydney will also be open to Australian students who are willing to pay for full-fee courses.
IBT Education provides English preparatory courses, as well as foundation, pre-university and university level courses across 11 colleges in Australia, England and Africa.
It currently runs six colleges in Australia (including one in Perth), each linked to a university that offers these foundation courses.
Perth’s IBT provides courses in association with Edith Cowan University at its Churchlands campus.
IBT managing director Rod Jones said Curtin Sydney was an opportunity to combine the strengths of both parties.
“We will be meeting the costs of establishing the campus and managing administration – a ballpark figure of between $3 million and $5 million is what this will cost,” Mr Jones said.
“We will employ a small pool of full-time academic staff and use sessional staff to teach units.
“This will help avoid overheads and lower costs.”
IBT listed in December and in April issued a profit update on its results for the year ending June 30, saying it expected net profit after tax would be $2 million to $3 million below the prospectus forecast of $31.5 million due to shortfalls in enrolments for the March 2005 semester.
The Curtin Sydney opening comes only weeks after the university said it would review the number and types of subject units offered.
One media outlet reported Curtin was intending to close more than half of its courses.
However, Professor Twomey denied this, saying Curtin, like all Australian universities, was dealing with the many changes to the higher education sector introduced by the Federal Government and closures on the scale suggested was “most unlikely”.
He said units and some courses with small numbers of students may close or merge.
Curtin University academic services pro vice-chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander said the bulk of course changes that would occur during the next two to three years would involve administrative efficiencies.
Multiple versions of a course would be reduced, similar courses merged and those courses that have failed to attract enrolments and are not state or national priorities would be discontinued.
