Published on Sunday, 18 November 2018 at 12:00:00 AM

Residents will be able to stay in the Pilbara while studying university courses and receive wrap-around educational support from as early as mid-2019 after a “game-changing” universities centre model for the region was awarded critical funding last week.

Funding of $3 million from the Federal Government will allow the establishment of the Pilbara Universities Centre — a supported distance education service providing local tutorials and administrative and pastoral support for students taking courses with partner universities — which will have its headquarters based in Karratha and a study hub in Port Hedland.

It will make the Pilbara only the second country region in WA to have such a centre, after the Mid West, and opens the door to the possible creation of a Pilbara School of Mines in the future.  Courses will include nursing, early childhood and primary teaching, engineering, business, and social services such as social work and psychology, and CQUniversity, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University and the University of Southern Queensland are in talks to be potential partner universities.  

Durack MHR Melissa Price said she hoped the centre would lead to education becoming “an industry of its own” in the Pilbara, especially if it prompted the creation of a Pilbara School of Mines.  “We’re talking about young people being able to get an education, but not just that, we’re talking about it being an industry so we’re going to attract people from other parts of Australia and the world to come and get their university education here,” she said.

Read the full article from The West Australian.

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