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The UCL campus in Adelaide, South Australia |
UCL says G’day to its latest campus
College launches facility in South Australia to give students a chance to research energy supply
NOT so long from now University College London plans to stick a flag in a large patch of Swiss Cottage and call it home for an academy school – new territory for one of Camden’s most celebrated academic institutions.
Yet while it might seem a long way to stray from the university’s headquarters in Bloomsbury, the bus ride across the borough will pale in comparison with the long-haul flight needed to get to UCL’s latest branch: a new campus in Australia.
From Adelaide Road – the site of its first academy – to Adelaide itself, UCL is expanding at a rate that will make other universities green with envy.
Its most ambitious project yet was confirmed last week when UCL put pen to paper on a deal with the government of South Australia to open a campus in a new development known as University City in the centre of Adelaide, focusing on research into energy supplies.
Sixty students will pay £14,000 for a two-year masters degree, which will include an internship. UCL insists it is “not a money-spinner” and funds raised will go back into the faculty.
The arrangement has made column inches in all of the national newspapers Down Under, each article bursting with praise and heralding UCL’s arrival.
Over there, the only dissenter appears to be the established and well-regarded University of Adelaide, which has queried why it has not received backing similar to the four million Australian dollars that South Australian Premier Mike Rann has agreed to spend on the project in order to attract overseas interest.
Mr Rann, who visited the UK last month to tie up the small print, meeting Gordon Brown during his stay, said: “As a result of our University City push, the numbers of international students studying in Adelaide have grown from a modest 6,000 in 2000 to 23,327 last year.
“With the attraction of UCL to Adelaide, it has now achieved even greater momentum.”
UCL might have thought it had enough on its plate with its academy project, which is still bogged down in a debate over whether the chosen location is best-placed to serve Camden families and whether the council should have even looked for an independent sponsor when it could have run the school like a traditional comprehensive.
But the deal in Adelaide has been in the pipeline for months and the university has been keen to stress that it isn’t a PR gimmick but a serious scheme that will become an “integral part” of UCL.
The campus will follow the model used in Bloomsbury and academics will fly from London to teach.
There have been some raised eyebrows in the lecture halls about how green that commute might be, how time differences will make video-conferencing virtually impossible and which staff will be selected to travel so far for work.
But vice-provost Professor Michael Worton is adamant it will lead to a cutting-edge arrangement.
He said: “Transnational education is changing the way that students and professionals now study and develop their skills.
“Through our campus in Adelaide, UCL will give a global lead on industry-focused research and teaching in a global context.
“UCL is committed to working to solve real-world problems and we relish the opportunity to work not only with the South Australian government, but also with many Australian and international energy companies through our presence in Adelaide.” |
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