Updated
Photo:
The Hobart accommodation will be similar to the housing at Inveresk in Launceston. (Supplied: Thomas Ryan)
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) has unveiled plans for more than 300 new accommodation beds in Hobart after earlier suggesting some students could jump the queue.
Earlier this month it was revealed the university had told students to search websites such as Gumtree, Facebook and commercial real estate websites to find accommodation for next year, because the University was preferencing new students to live in its 1,110 Hobart accommodation rooms.
The university had also made a “queue jump” offer to foreign students, allowing them to move to the front of the accommodation line if they paid their fees upfront.
About 180 of the new beds will be in temporary prefabricated accommodation, to be moved onto the Christ College precinct at the Sandy Bay campus, similar to units used for student apartments at Inveresk in Launceston.
The university said it had also purchased an inner-city property with 99 beds, and that renovations at the Theatre Royal Hotel and Midcity Hotel accommodation would allow for an additional 37 beds.
Vice-chancellor Rufus Black said the new beds would be provided to commencing students, so students in existing residences could stay on.
“I am particularly pleased that we can remove the concern for people before we break for Christmas,” he said.
“We will be sending out offers to those students in our current residences who have applied for accommodation today.”
The university is lodging a development application with the Hobart City Council for the temporary accommodation, and said the new beds were expected to be available in time for the first semester.
In May, the university announced plans to build a $50 million, 430-bed complex in Melville Street by 2021, and purchased the 105-room Midcity Hotel on Bathurst Street.
Topics:
university-and-further-education,
tas,
First posted