University of South Australia | Developments & News

[fkj]

Had the opportunity to head inside the building during the fire systems testing - here's a little peek inside

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[Norman]

A few more photos of Pridham Hall

[Alyx]

UniSA is forging ahead with its transformation of the city’s West End, unveiling plans for two landmark buildings and other projects costing more than $500 million.

The Sunday Mail can reveal initial designs for significant projects on both Hindley St and North Tce.

They will allow the uni to consolidate firstly its Magill, then City East campuses, onto the City West campus, bringing 15,000 more students to the West End.

The Hindley St project, on the site of the uni’s Heysen building and the former Barbecue Inn, will house its creative industries courses as well psychology, social work and law.

The ground floor will bring together the uni’s range of public clinics including health, law, psychology, social work and tax.

Vice-chancellor David Lloyd says that ideally, if the post-COVID recovery allows for a return to “some sense of normality and certainty” of revenue streams, construction will begin in 2022 for an opening in 2024.

The uni can cover the cost from its own reserves.

The second building will be on the corner of North Tce and Gray St, where the uni’s public health clinic now sits. It will be for health sciences, physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery students currently at City East.

Financing for that is trickier, as it will require the sale of City East buildings, officially valued at $113.4 million, and some borrowing, but the aim is to start in 2024 and open in 2026.

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Prof Lloyd said the buildings will be similar in scale to the uni’s14-level Cancer Research Institute (CRI) on North Tce, next to the Morphett St Bridge.

“When I look at the city, the East End has changed significantly. The West End hasn’t that much, apart from the biomed (precinct),” he said.

“We’ve been low-rise here, but there’s no impediment to going high. I don’t want to build some monolithic big towers. They’ll be two decent, functional buildings with multipurpose activities going on in them, (with) public domain on the ground floor.”

He said the projects would “shift again the way in which the city works”.

“Our population will get significantly bigger here. If we get the concentration of students right here, you’ll end up with a really vibrant hub here in the West End.”

Prof Lloyd said the best-case timeline for the bigger projects is reliant on post-COVID recovery.

“It would be rash of me to spend down the capital reserve right now, when I don’t know what next year is going to look like in terms of making sure that we can keep all of our staff employed.”

But there are plenty of job-creating smaller projects in the meantime. Mid next year, three giant LED screens, each spanning up to five-storeys and collectively costing $3m, will be integrated into the eastern facade of the CRI and showcase UniSA’s MOD (Museum of Discovery).

“They’ll be the biggest billboard in Adelaide,” Prof Lloyd said.

He expects a major refit of the former Night Train building on Light Square to become UniSA’s “enterprise hub” to happen next year.

It will be the uni’s “front door” for industry to engage with its researchers, as well as housing an incubator for start-ups and “scale-ups”, plus business consultancy services.

Also next year, the uni will a build a research lab at an undisclosed location, accredited under the federal Defence Industry Security Program.

“That’s about a $2 million investment that allows us to do classified research within the networks of government, which is a really key piece for the defence industry here in South Australia,” Prof Lloyd said.

Other plans include turning the courtyard of the current law building at City West into an indigenous centre including a “yarning circle”.

A long-awaited upgrade of George St, which runs through the campus, remains subject to negotiations with Adelaide City Council. The uni is prepared to invest $5 million if the council agrees to a permanent closure.

The plan for the Magill campus, as revealed by The Advertiser in 2018, remains a privately-funded retirement and aged care centre which would be a key site for placements of UniSA’s health and aged care students.

Source: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/educatio ... dbce96b8c2



The health sciences building proposed for UniSA’s City West campus, at the corner of Gray St and North Tce.



The proposed new building for creative industries, psychology, social work and law at UniSA's City West campus, fronting Hindley St.



The giant LED screens to be attached to the facade of UniSA’s Cancer Research Institute on North Tce.

[gnrc_louis]

These new buildings look great! Will be an excellent addition to the West End.

[Patrick_27]

What happened to the further expansion/developments that UniSA had planned between their Jeffrey Smart building/Pridham Hall and Currie Street (currently the bus stopover point)?

Regardless, glad to see this happening, there’s a lot of development potential around the West of the city, and in some cases I think UniSA are the only ones who are going to make it realised. Although I’m surprised there aren’t more student accommodation buildings proposed for the west.

Would it be expected that UoA would buy the bulk of City East? Can they afford it and would this alter their own plans for their campus in terms of building upwards in certain pockets of their campus? I would imagine the suitable option would be for UoA to buy the campus and move their facilities on Lot 14 into this area opening up those buildings in Lot 14 to more business sector expansion.

I think this whole proposal along with SAMRI 2 highlights the need to for a further master plan for the remainder of North Terrace, it’s all very disjointed around this precinct and there isn’t much in the way of a pedestrian strip further u along the section where all the hotels front onto the road (opposite the Railway Station/Convention Centre).

[ghs]

Although I’m surprised there aren’t more student accommodation buildings proposed for the west.

Mate, have you ever heard of :

1) Unilodge city gardens
2) atira waymouth
3) 124 Waymouth st

[Patrick_27]

Although I’m surprised there aren’t more student accommodation buildings proposed for the west.

Mate, have you ever heard of :

1) Unilodge city gardens
2) atira waymouth
3) 124 Waymouth st

I realise this. Did you read where I said more student accommodation buildings PROPOSED for the west. There is easily 8,000 to 10,000 students situated in the west at the present time, this is expected to grow to 15,000 with these d developments, a sizeable portion of these would be overseas, interstate and intrastate students, granted a bulk of these would end up in share houses in suburban Adelaide but what of the remainder. City east has a head of existing student accommodation buildings, and there are more proposed or going up as we speak.

[Nort]

Although I’m surprised there aren’t more student accommodation buildings proposed for the west.

Mate, have you ever heard of :

1) Unilodge city gardens
2) atira waymouth
3) 124 Waymouth st

I realise this. Did you read where I said more student accommodation buildings PROPOSED for the west. There is easily 8,000 to 10,000 students situated in the west at the present time, this is expected to grow to 15,000 with these d developments, a sizeable portion of these would be overseas, interstate and intrastate students, granted a bulk of these would end up in share houses in suburban Adelaide but what of the remainder. City east has a head of existing student accommodation buildings, and there are more proposed or going up as we speak.

These have only just been announced, and if everything goes to plan won't be completed for four years, plenty of time to see more accommodation plans lodged.

Does anyone know what the UniSA international student numbers look like compared to Adelaide Uni? I know they get a fair few, but I imagine being an older university gets Adelaide Uni more wanting to go there.

[SRW]

UniSA is in the best financial position of any of the South Australian universities, and one of the best nationally. They're so far still proceeding with scheduled pay rises and there are no plans to reduce core staffing for at least the next year, all while undertaking a massive academic restructure. It's good to see their capital works programme is also shielded.

I suspect there's some strategy behind making the announcement now, as governments are now putting together their postponed budgets. These are two ready-to-go productive investments that the federal or state governments could fast track to keep the construction industry going, not to mention lessen the appearance of their (partisan) antipathy towards education.

[Llessur2002]

Would it be expected that UoA would buy the bulk of City East? Can they afford it and would this alter their own plans for their campus in terms of building upwards in certain pockets of their campus? I would imagine the suitable option would be for UoA to buy the campus and move their facilities on Lot 14 into this area opening up those buildings in Lot 14 to more business sector expansion.

My understanding is that there is some sort of covenant or similar on the City East site which states it can only be used by educational institutions. With very limited buyers fitting that bill and with UniSA probably pretty keen to offload it I doubt the figures required to buy the site would be astronomical and may even be nominal.

UoA have definitely been aware of this impending situation for a long time and it will be factored into long-term plans in one way or another but I'll eat several hats if they opt to withdraw from Lot 14 in any way.

[SRW]

Don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere, but UniSA has taken over the former Night Train building in Light Square and will renovate it to become its Entreprise Hub. More information about its broader capital works re: campus consolidation will probably reach the public domain after October.

[SouthAussie94]

Universities of Adelaide and SA revive merger talks, with new combined uni pitched for 2026

Despite previous stalled efforts, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are now closer to merging than ever before, after reviving talks to amalgamate and rebrand as a single institution within three years.

Key points:

• A combined uni would be named Adelaide University and be operational from January 2026

• The government says there will be "no net job losses" as a result of the deal

• A previous merger effort was revealed in 2018 but was scuppered months later

The state government has said the two universities had reached agreement "regarding a formal pathway" to combine, and that they would now work together to create a feasibility and business case to become the biggest university in Australia for domestic students.

The university would be named Adelaide University and be operational from January 2026.

Full article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-07/ ... /101746396

It would be interesting the effects that a merger of the Unis would have.

Presumably Magill would be the first to go.

Would Mawson Lakes stay?

City East and Adelaide Uni combine, does the entire footprint stay as University?

How would the Medical buildings and City West campus work?

Will be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of this...

[SRW]

Don't forget UofA also has Roseworthy and Waite, and UniSA is in Whyalla and Mt Gambier.

In terms of the city campuses it would be logical enough to consolidate disciplines east or west (e.g. Medical/Health to West). Either way they will need new buildings, depending on decisions about teaching delivery. UniSA is quite good at external/online teaching but UofA mostly spurns it, and is consequently short of physical teaching space. A bigger uni would also probably attract more students (this is one of the arguments in favour). I wonder if the recently proposed UniSA building will be placed on the back-burner pending outcome?

The most curious part for me is that Flinders is not mentioned. In the 2018 talks, it declined to participate. But as these talks resulted from a state government 3-to-1 merger policy, I'd've thought they'd feel obliged to partake (although, to be fair, given funding comes almost wholly from the Commonwealth the state has limited leverage but for changing establishing acts in parliament).

It would be unfortunate if Flinders is not part of the considerations. I'm sceptical of the benefits of a merger between UofA and UniSA but can see complementarities between UniSA and Flinders. For one, it would give UniSA a medical degree and teaching hospital. Alternatively, if there's a decision that the state needs 2 unis instead of 3 or 1, perhaps UniSA and UofA do merge but Flinders takes Mawson Lakes to be our suburban institution. If we're doing this, do it holistically.

[Saltwater]

With Flinders Uni the anchor tenant in the Festival Plaza development (makes you wonder how much CBD office space is actually taken up by commercial organisations), one could walk from West Terrace to East, passing buildings from Uni SA, Flinders and Adelaide Uni, and wonder why a city our size needs three universities. Surely some consolidation would be good in bringing some efficiency and driving costs down for students.

[Llessur2002]

Don't forget UofA also has Roseworthy and Waite, and UniSA is in Whyalla and Mt Gambier.

In terms of the city campuses it would be logical enough to consolidate disciplines east or west (e.g. Medical/Health to West). Either way they will need new buildings, depending on decisions about teaching delivery. UniSA is quite good at external/online teaching but UofA mostly spurns it, and is consequently short of physical teaching space. A bigger uni would also probably attract more students (this is one of the arguments in favour). I wonder if the recently proposed UniSA building will be placed on the back-burner pending outcome?

The most curious part for me is that Flinders is not mentioned. In the 2018 talks, it declined to participate. But as these talks resulted from a state government 3-to-1 merger policy, I'd've thought they'd feel obliged to partake (although, to be fair, given funding comes almost wholly from the Commonwealth the state has limited leverage but for changing establishing acts in parliament).

It would be unfortunate if Flinders is not part of the considerations. I'm sceptical of the benefits of a merger between UofA and UniSA but can see complementarities between UniSA and Flinders. For one, it would give UniSA a medical degree and teaching hospital. Alternatively, if there's a decision that the state needs 2 unis instead of 3 or 1, perhaps UniSA and UofA do merge but Flinders takes Mawson Lakes to be our suburban institution. If we're doing this, do it holistically.

I don't believe the merger commission was going to specifically look at merging all three institutions - just two as a minimum. I suspect Flinders are quite happy being left out of the discussions and would probably benefit from the merging of the other two as they'll attract students who are specifically looking for a smaller institution and/or those who did not want to attend UniSA or UoA for other reasons.