$70m boost for Bay economy

A new downtown campus in Tauranga is gaining momentum and will ultimately host more than 6000 students pumping an additional $70 million a year into the local economy.
A crucial meeting will be held on February 2 to hear a presentation on the best site for the student campus that will create a unique tertiary education system involving at least three institutions.
Consultant Beca - in a report commissioned by University of Waikato - will present its findings on the merits of three sites to the meeting of 30 key players promoting the major campus.
A Durham St precinct, involving the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic-owned Bongard Centre (possibly for student accommodation) and developing the carpark the polytech leases, and Cross Rd in Sulphur Point are two sites that have been publicly mentioned. A third possible site is on the northern edge of the central business district.
Two major funding applications, totalling $30 million, to kickstart the project have been made by economic development agency, Priority One.
Following the presentation by Beca planning director Christine Ralph, the Tertiary Partnership Steering Group will meet for the first time in the same week to consider the findings.
A recommendation on the site of the student campus would then be sent to the councils of the individual institutions involved in the partnership - Waikato University, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi which has certificate, degree, masters and PhD programmes.
Waiariki Institute of Technology in Rotorua has also been asked to join the partnership.
Final planning, including consents, would take six months and building could start next year, with the first stage of the campus opening in early 2014.
"We can have a unique tertiary education system for the Bay, we are quite serious about it, and we are very pleased with the government interest," Waikato University deputy vice chancellor, Professor Doug Sutton, told Bay of Plenty Times.
"The planning is well advanced. We can develop a system in which the institutions play complementary roles, instead of competing, in delivering comprehensive educational opportunities for the students ... from community and foundation programmes to wananga courses, polytechnic diplomas and university degrees," Mr Sutton said.
"Nowhere else in the country has this been attempted, and it will enhance the prosperity and wellbeing of the region. The relative absence of young adults is severe in Tauranga.
"Our research shows more school leavers in Tauranga want to do degrees closer to home and we need to increase the level of skills based on local business needs," he said.
Mr Sutton said based on population projections the demand for tertiary education is large enough to increase enrolments 20 per cent a year - compared with the national average of 5 per cent.
"Nearly 900,000 people will be living in the Bay and Waikato by 2051, forming the base of the golden triangle with Auckland, and we will need a very smart education system sufficient to support a world class university and world class applied research - with the polytechnic and wananga working in with this," he said.
Mr Sutton said a curriculum review was taking place for the new tertiary system, and the downtown Tauranga campus could have an emphasis on science, technology, law and business.
He believed the campus could have 3600 full time equivalent students by 2020 - this would involve 6000-7000 students taking into account those who study on a part-time basis.
The number of international students would increase by driving an effective recruitment programme and marketing the Bay, Mr Sutton said.
Each fulltime student would spend about $25,000 a year including fees, and Mr Sutton said the impact on the region would be $70-$100 million a year, based on 3600 fulltime equivalent students.
At present University of Waikato in Tauranga has 600 fulltime equivalents involving 2000 students. Bay of Plenty Polytechnic has 10,000 students or 3000 fulltime equivalents.
The new downtown campus would link in with existing sites at Windermere, Bongard Centre in Tauranga, Whakatane, Hamilton and possibly Rotorua.
"This is as major; it will be exciting for the region," said Mr Sutton.
Two Durham St landlords Tom Roper and Lloyd Christie, who owns the English Language School building alongside the polytech carpark, indicated they would look at being part of a campus development.
Mr Roper, whose company owns the Bay of Plenty Times building, the small carpark alongside and the Frank Allen Tyres site, said there was no reason why a campus couldn't happen in Durham St ... "anything to rejuvenate the downtown".