\n<\/p>\n
The \u201cintergenerational retirement living community\u201d about to sprout on an Australian university\u2019s suburban campus will generate clinical training opportunities for students while it \u201cstrengthens the social fabric\u201d of the city, its advocates claim.<\/p>\n
The University of Canberra plans to convert unused land\u2014currently occupied by gum trees, grassland, dilapidated fencing and the odd hungry kangaroo\u2014into a mini village complete with 230 \u201cindependent living units,\u201d a 180-bed care facility, a retail center and health services on tap.<\/p>\n
The project is designed to ease housing shortages and help older Australians in \u201cdownsizing\u201d while promoting intergenerational mingling.<\/p>\n
It will also provide practical educational opportunities across multiple disciplines. \u201cOur students here, from allied health through to the built environment\u00a0\u2026 nursing and many other vocations, will be able to get on-the-job training whilst they are at the university,\u201d said Vice Chancellor Bill Shorten.<\/p>\n
\u201cUniversity education makes a lot more sense when\u00a0\u2026 you\u2019re practicing what you\u2019re learning. Nothing beats that real-world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under a deal signed with property developers Pariter and residential aged care provider Opal, the university will lease the 2.2-hectare site\u2014nestled between UC\u2019s hospital and health hub\u2014for 100 years. The two companies will bankroll the project\u2019s capital costs, estimated at about 150\u00a0million Australian dollars ($99.2\u00a0million).<\/p>\n
The university will pocket \u201clease receipts and revenue share,\u201d although it declined to say how much. The deal will facilitate collaborative employment and \u201cco-designed\u201d learning programs, along with joint research projects and student placements on campus and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The older residents will be encouraged to engage with each other and their younger neighbors, including the more than 2,000 students who live on campus. Pedestrian links will connect them to caf\u00e9s, the library, medical services and nearby bushland.<\/p>\n
Shorten said the construction still requires final approval, but he expects it to begin within about two years and finish within four. He insisted that the project, which had been the subject of long-standing negotiations with various partners, would have gone ahead irrespective of the university\u2019s financial position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just makes sense,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThis is an idea [whose] time has come. I think this is what modern universities should be doing. At the end of the day, trying to suppress a good idea is like trying to keep a ball below the surface of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
UC is among a throng of Australian universities that are converting parts of their considerable landholdings into revenue-earning opportunities matched to their educational and community support missions. The University of Wollongong is seeking final development approval for an \u201cintergenerational university community\u201d that features health services, integrated research and education spaces, an early-learning center and accommodation for more than 400 older residents on its seaside campus.<\/p>\n
La Trobe and Flinders Universities have also flagged the possible establishment of aged care facilities as part of multibillion-dollar developments of their campuses in suburban Melbourne and Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Opal\u2019s director of communications and sustainability, Rosanne Cartwright, said similar precincts were springing up in countries with aging demographics including Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. \u201cThe aging population is a global issue that needs to be solved locally,\u201d Cartwright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians across every generation are dealing with loneliness as a real issue,\u201d she added. \u201cYounger people need to look after older people and older people need to look after younger people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commercial redevelopments on campus have sparked criticism that vice chancellors are diverging from their educational mission into property speculation\u2014grievances that run strong if universities invest in capital projects while reducing staff to save costs.<\/p>\n
The National Tertiary Education Union said it was comfortable with the UC project \u201cso long as it contributes to rather than detracts from\u201d teaching and research.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom time to time there are some objections to using university land in that way, but it\u2019s not really in short supply at the University of Canberra,\u201d said the union\u2019s divisional secretary, Lachlan Clohesy. \u201cIf there\u2019s revenue\u00a0\u2026 supplementing the university and therefore able to contribute to the core mission, that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The \u201cintergenerational retirement living community\u201d about to sprout on an Australian university\u2019s suburban campus will generate clinical training opportunities for students while it \u201cstrengthens the social fabric\u201d of the city, its advocates claim. The University of Canberra plans to convert unused land\u2014currently occupied by gum trees, grassland, dilapidated fencing and the odd hungry kangaroo\u2014into a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[4320,456,1990,20220,2894,222,910],"class_list":{"0":"post-36096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-campus","9":"tag-home","10":"tag-offer","11":"tag-onthejob","12":"tag-opening","13":"tag-retirement","14":"tag-training"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}