Welcome

Our mission for a better Tasmania remains undimmed during a turbulent time.

Well before COVID-19 arrived, the University of Tasmania had determined to set off upon a different path to the one it had been on.

Rather than pursuing the increasingly typical higher education model in which success is measured by scale – which logically distracts institutions such as ours from serving our place – we determined to be a University for Tasmania and, from here, make a contribution to the world.

It is a very different path to the one we were travelling, but we set off with a sense of excitement about what it could mean.

Months later COVID-19 did arrive and we know it has been profoundly challenging across the globe. Our thoughts have been with many in our alumni family who have faced this challenge and been impacted in recent years.

However, this renewed University focus of being both for and from Tasmania has meant that we have focused our efforts on the needs of our community and, working together, have been able to make a real difference.

Creating better pathways for students

We have transformed our courses and expanded our offering. We have dramatically simplified our course structure making it much easier for students to understand and much more flexible to meet their needs. We are introducing course areas of Tasmanian need like physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology. We have redesigned our courses to better develop the professional skills Tasmania needs and we have focused on making them distinctive.

We have made a real breakthrough in transforming Tasmanian access to higher education. The introduction of the Schools Recommendation Program has seen a dramatic growth in interest for higher education in communities where access has been a challenge historically. In the North-West applications increased by 34 per cent, in the North by 14 per cent, and in the South by 25 per cent. That has converted into significant growth (almost 8 per cent) in Tasmanian students in higher education, including a 30 per cent increase in students with a disability.

We know we have more to do.

Financial need is a still a major barrier. There are 1000 Tasmanian students who couldn’t join us because of challenges with money.

Responding to this, we have transformed our scholarship approach to make it easier and more targeted.

Since opening in August this year, the Support to Study Scholarship Package has had a great response from potential students, already attracting 1000 requests for assistance with finance, relocation and accommodation for 2022 within weeks of opening.

There is clearly huge demand here and we will need to attract more donor support to meet this.

What we are doing will be a generational change that’s dependent on the support of both the university and those who can assist, to ensure we can create clearer pathways to study for so many Tasmanians.

Supporting our distinctive regions

Importantly, we also approach this vital mission about access in a way that supports the needs of the regions where we operate.

This was strongly evident in the community excitement and celebration of the opening of the Field Building on the Cradle Coast.

This part of our mission is not just about new buildings, but the things they enable us to deliver. For instance, nursing is now being taught in Burnie, meaning students don’t have to travel to Launceston or Hobart for their study. This removes cost and loss of community networks as barriers to study.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black, centre, with Chancellor Alison Watkins and TIA Research Fellow Dr James Hills.