A new campus of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) will be built near the Canberra CBD on the site of the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Reid campus, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has announced.
Mr Barr said the new UNSW campus in Reid would be home to a “world-class research, education and innovation campus”. The ACT Government will provide the site, approximately eight hectares of land, as well as an investment of $25 million towards the project and the cost of remediating the site for UNSW.
Once complete, the campus is expected to be used by around 6,000 students and 2,000 staff.
UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs said the new campus will “strengthen Canberra’s reputation as a knowledge and innovation hub” and “boost the city’s economy and employment”.
“UNSW has a 50-year history of delivering outstanding education and research in Canberra. This new campus will enable us to take the scale and quality of our involvement in Canberra to a new level. It is an exciting time for UNSW and for the national capital, as its tertiary education credentials are further enhanced,” Professor Jacobs said.
Mr Barr said the campus would play a “major role” in the renewal of Canberra’s city centre, and would provide a “long-term economic boost” to Canberrans.
It was announced last year that a new CIT campus would be built in the Woden Town Centre, expected to be operational in the mid-2020s. The CIT Reid campus is expected to be operational for at least the next five years, until the new Woden campus is built, with CIT to maintain a “continued presence” in the CBD.
UNSW is expected to undertake consultation with stakeholders and the community to help inform the master plan for the new campus.
For more information on the new UNSW campus, visit canberra.unsw.edu.au
