QLD: Gold Coast misses out on uni places committee

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-1999
QLD: Gold Coast misses out on uni places committee

GOLD COAST, April 27 AAP - The Gold Coast had the lowest ratio of government-funded
university places in Australia for a city of its size, a local development committee said
today.

Regional Economic Development Advisory Committee chairman Alan Rickard said he would push
the Gold Coast City Council to ask the state and federal governments to give Australia's sixth
largest city a "fair go".

"On a population basis, projected figures reveal that by the year 2001, the Gold Coast will
receive funding for 13.3 places for every 1,000 people," Mr Rickard said in a statement.

"On the same population basis Canberra/Queanbeyan receives funding for 34.2 places,
Wollongong 29.5, Newcastle 24.8. Townsville/Cairns 30.5 and the Australian average is 21.2.

"These figures highlight the unfairness and inequity of the situation."

Mr Rickard said the figures were even more disproportionate considering the Gold Coast,
with a population of more than 400,000, was Australia's fastest growing city.

He said the Gold Coast campus of Griffith University this year accepted 1,800 students and
refused more than 1,700.

Mr Rickard said the city needed an additional 3,000 university places by 2001 just to keep
up with the national average and 6,000 to bring the city up to the same level as
Canberra/Queanbeyan.

"At the moment we are getting only the crumbs when we deserve a piece of the cake and it's
vital that we urgently address this inequity," Mr Rickard said.

"If the government is serious about creating more jobs and tapping into the increasing
market that the new and emerging technologies are creating then it's vital that it provides
the university places this region deserves and we call upon the government to meet this
obligation."

Bond University, a privately-funded institution on the Gold Coast, was not included in the
equations.

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KEYWORD: PLACES COAST

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