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The Government is to give $25 million to buy land for a new South Auckland university campus.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Auckland University of Technology are confirmed the funding today from the site of the new campus, at the former Carter Holt Harvey property on Great
South Rd in Manukau.
It will be the first major university base in South Auckland and is expected to begin as early as next year after some re-development of the site, initially offering courses for 190 fulltime students. It will be completed by 2014, offering courses for about 1000 students.
The Herald understands the Government has agreed to give about $25 million to help AUT buy the property after the university's earlier approach to Manukau City Council was refused.
At the launch of the campus Tertiary Education Minister Pete Hodgson announced that the Tertiary Education Commission would be holding a review of the sector in the Auckland region.
This would try to identify how investments in tertiary education could contribute to the development of Auckland as a "globally competitive city".
The review would be completed by July 2009.
The new campus ticks off several of Labour's core policy boxes, especially its drive to get more Pacific Island and Maori people into tertiary education.
It will be the first major university base in South Auckland, where 40 per cent of the population is aged under 25 but where there has as yet been little major investment in tertiary education.
Manukau Institute of Technology is the only other major tertiary institution in the area. The new campus will also help service the fast-growing Botany Downs region, which is closer to Manukau than to the central city.
It follows years of lobbying by civic and education leaders in Manukau for more local opportunities in tertiary education, but previous attempts have come to nothing.
Among the first courses will be AUT's three-year Pasifika early childhood education teaching and midwifery degrees.
Both will be relocated from their North Shore bases.
Another component of the new campus will be AUT's Technology Park business incubator programme, which will move to the Manukau site from its Penrose base, part of which is also commercially leased.
The Technology Park was established in 2001 as a business research facility and an "incubator" for people with start-up technology companies.
Today's announcement confirms reports initially made in the Herald in May about the plans for the new campus.
Future courses will be decided after consultation with the local community and employers to ensure they meet the Government's new rules for tertiary funding. Under its new strategy, institutions must offer courses that meet local employment needs and do not double up with courses that can be easily found elsewhere.
Manukau City Council had refused AUT's application for funding for the new campus and yesterday a spokesman for Acting Manukau Mayor Gary Troup refused to confirm the plans, but indicated Mr Troup would be attending today's announcement.
Other councillors said they knew nothing about the planned AUT campus, and Manurewa ward councillor Colleen Brown said the council would probably press ahead with plans to develop an educational facility at its preferred Hayman Park site regardless of AUT's plans.
"[It] will have no effect ... We have got a huge number of young people here ... and if we get the right kind of providers and the right kind of programmes that will be very exciting."