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Vice-Chancellor and President's weekly column
Planned expansion continues
28 January 2012
The University of the Sunshine Coast has some exciting teaching and learning developments on the agenda following the recent awarding of a $24 million Commonwealth Government competitive grant under the Government’s Structural Adjustment Fund.
This money will go toward a $33 million Collaborative Futures Project, involving the University, the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE (SCIT) and the Wide Bay Institute of TAFE (WBIT). This project will deliver outstanding new physical facilities, which will be constructed in collaboration with our TAFE partners, as well as enhanced blended learning and simulation learning capacity and capability.
A Gympie Learning Hub situated on WBIT’s Gympie campus will be built by early 2013 comprising innovative learning and teaching spaces, a 75-seat lecture theatre, and simulation learning facilities.
The two-storey building will be fitted out with the latest smart technologies. It will have enhanced broadband capacity so live video conferencing facilities can connect the Gympie Learning Hub to the new Sippy Downs Learning Hub, which is forecast for completion in January 2014.
The three-storey Sippy Downs Learning Hub will comprise innovative teaching and learning spaces, a large simulation learning and teaching suite, new resources to support blended learning and offices for staff and some community groups.
Our vision is for the Sippy Downs Learning Hub to be the nerve centre of the design, development and delivery of blended learning and simulation learning for Nursing Science and other programs including Paramedic Science and Occupational Therapy.
In physical terms, students will have access to replicated hospital wards, emergency bays and sophisticated manikins that can exhibit a range of disease problems. We are also looking at opportunities for medical students from the University of Queensland to train alongside USC students, enabling us to have trainee doctors, nurses and paramedics all under the one roof, interacting in real-life emergency scenarios.
Through innovative video conferencing facilities and special whiteboard technology, students at the Gympie Learning Hub will be able to participate in the scenarios taking place at Sippy Downs.
The University of the Sunshine Coast is excited about the new opportunities offered by these developments. The construction work will provide a boost for the local economy and give USC the facilities it needs to continue its planned expansion.
Professor Birgit Lohmann is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Sunshine Coast.