An amalgamated university city could make Albury-Wodonga the next Cambridge or Oxford, according to Indi MP Cathy McGowan.
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The Border has both La Trobe and Charles Sturt university campuses, plus TAFE NSW and Wodonga TAFE.
“My vision is that we bring the two universities and the two TAFEs together and we put it into some sort of polytechnique where you’ve got a staircase through to your degree course and your research, and we stop the duplication of Albury and Wodonga competing with each other,” Ms McGowan said.
“I’ve been talking to (Education) Minister (Simon) Birmingham about what happens in England with Cambridge University and with Oxford University.
“They’re both in the country and we have university cities.
“It seems to me that if Albury-Wodonga could be a university city, with well-funded TAFE and higher education, it would be the economic driver we need to really position ourselves for the future.”
This is not the first time the idea has been raised; an “Albury-Wodonga university” was first flagged by former prime minister Gough Whitlam back in 1975.
He said it was “mad” to create two university campuses of Charles Sturt and La Trobe, but the idea was not supported by his government.
Ms McGowan said she had raised the idea with Senator Birmingham and Regional Development Minister John McVeigh, saying it would help professions like teachers and engineers to be trained locally.
“We could call this a regional deal where the two cities, one community come together and we put education at the centre of it,” she said.
“They’ve heard the argument, they can see the logic of it.
“Now I need them to go to cabinet and really push in cabinet for regional deals, and particularly regional education.”
La Trobe University did not support the amalgamation idea, but was working with other organisations.
“We are very committed to working closely with Wodonga Institute of TAFE to create pathways for regional students, as we do at all our other regional campuses, and we believe in the importance of having a world class university like La Trobe, ranked amongst the top 1.4 per cent in the world, as the main university presence for Wodonga,” a spokesman said.
