While an evolving Covid landscape has disrupted life as we know it, Western Sydney University continues to advance a bold and ambitious plan for the transformation of its footprint across the region during a period of uncertainty and ambiguity.
Empowered by its Sustaining Success Strategy, the university says it remains committed to recovery and renewal, while simultaneously rethinking and revolutionising the role of Australian universities.
The University’s Western Growth strategy reimagines a future of connectivity and accessibility, of placemaking, and community.
“Through Western Growth we are co-creating the cities of the future,” a spokesperson said.
“Our pioneering vision is delivering a hybrid network of vertically integrated and horizontal campuses, optimised by successful joint venture partnerships and commercial opportunities that co-locate and collaborate with industry, government, and community.”
As an anchor institution for Western Sydney, the university is embedded in the economic, cultural, and social growth of the region.
Determined to deliver with vision and purpose, the university says it is driven by opportunity. This includes co-design and delivery of education and research programs in partnership that inspire and effect change for the community.
Bringing this concept to life, Western delivered its first vertically integrated campus in 2017 with the state-of-the-art Parramatta City campus—the Peter Shergold Building at One Parramatta Square, known as 1PSQ.
“Here, university innovation stands proudly among the bustling central city of Parramatta and reflects a new era of education,” the spokesperson said.
“Contained within a single footprint, 1PSQ provides leading edge, education and research facilities, alongside commercial services designed to enrich the landscape with opportunity and amenity.
“Inside the building is a thriving and connected knowledge hub. Students, academics and researchers cross paths with industry leaders, facilitated by the careful curation and strategic co-location of partners.
“Occupying the building on a sub-lease basis, their presence also complements the university’s education and research programs.”
Through this model, Western settles the education sector onto more progressive and sustainable foundations. Here, the city becomes the campus.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, has celebrated Western’s commitment to industry-engaged education and innovation.
“In Parramatta we have a world-class campus and world-class opportunities for students in a business precinct that has unparalleled integration with community facilities and amenities,’ the Premier said.
Set to open in 2021, Western Sydney University’s second vertical campus in Parramatta City, the Engineering Innovation Hub, bolsters Western’s commitment to growth and enrichment.
Located in Hassall Street, the hub will be next to the Parramatta Transport Interchange, and approximately 300m from the Peter Shergold Building. The new build features high-performing, technology infused and environmentally sustainable facilities.
As a marker of constructive partnerships, Charter Hall, the university’s partner for the project, are delivering the campus in anticipation for the exciting collaborative engineering program developed and delivered in partnership with UNSW Sydney, together with Western programs in architecture, industrial design and entrepreneurship.
Western is extending the vertical campus model to the Bankstown CBD by 2022, in partnership with Walker Corporation. The Bankstown City Campus will focus on health, advanced manufacturing, and education, with facilities that promote collaboration and discovery between students and local enterprises.
Across both Liverpool and Westmead, Western is also establishing a leading model for medical technology, servicing innovation and commercialisation at scale, training entrepreneurs, and creating a new enterprise that aligns clinical priorities with commercial-ready solutions.
Liverpool’s first major university presence, The Ngara Ngura Building, delivered state-of-the-art nursing simulation facilities across a 10-floor vertical campus, alongside digitally enhanced teaching spaces to students of social work, anthropology, criminology and policing.
Western continues to plan for the growth of education and research programs in the Liverpool Innovation Precinct as part of an established and expanding network of campus sites in South Western Sydney, while the Westmead Innovation Quarter project will bring three of the university’s research institutes together with industry, community and government partners in Australia’s premier health precinct.
By nurturing world-leading research driven by our community’s future IT, infrastructure, engineering, health, and educational needs, Western says it will actively contribute to generating thousands of knowledge-based jobs and support graduates of the future.
“Our bold pursuit of excellence is not just limited to the development of new campuses, but also to the enhancement of the University’s existing campus portfolio,” the spokesperson said.
Continually pursuing the cultivation of information, Western envisions its Penrith campus as a sustainable urban ecosystem. Powered by the university’s advanced knowledge network and linked with our campus footprint within the Western Sydney innovation corridor, the site serves as a gateway to the Aerotropolis.
Utilising the profile and characteristics of the existing campus, Western plans to grow its academic presence alongside a cutting-edge mixed-use community.
The Penrith campus will operate and co-create on the leading edge of urban development. Working with local government, this large-scale urban renewal project will contribute toward significant employment growth and housing diversity.
A mix of dwelling types and density will be supported by a vibrant town centre and world-class teaching and learning facilities in a new sustainable innovation community.
The Penrith campus will also cluster business, industry and workers around existing knowledge and job-generating opportunities in the health and education precinct.
“With an enduring commitment to innovation and knowledge, Western is delivering an innovative and sustainable model for tertiary education,” the spokesperson said.
“By collaborating more closely with industry, innovating our learning and teaching, and supporting place-based research, we are stronger, more flexible and more responsive to serving our region.”
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