Education Minister Jason Clare is now in Indonesia.
Yesterday, along with East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and the Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim he attended the soft launch of the Surabaya Branch Campus of Western Sydney University (WSU).
The campus will be located at Pakuwon Tower in the heart of Surabaya, and will have a focus on entrepreneurship, digital skills and sustainability. It will feature the University’s highly successful Launch Pad tech start-up incubator which will join Surabaya’s vibrant start-up ecosystem.
It is envisaged that WSU’s first batch of approximately 70 students will start studying in September 2024. After reaching 2,500 students, a second phase of campus development will target an enrolment of 5,000 students.
In his speech, the Minister promoted the bilateral education partnerships between the two countries. He said “Not everyone can afford to come to Australia to study. But Australian universities can come to you.”
“That is what Monash University has done in Jakarta. That is what Western Sydney University is doing here.”
“It does more than that though. What it will really do is help two neighbours come closer together. It will make new friends. It will share new words and new stories just like the people of South Sulawesi and North East Arnhem land did all those centuries ago. And it will help build new skills for a new century. That’s what education does.” He said.
Western Sydney in the Minister’s DNA
A western Sydney boy growing up, not unlike this little Koala, seeing WSU flourish is personal for the Minister. Clare, the member for Blaxland in Western Sydney since 2007 remembers the time when there was no WSU, it was the last year of his high school when it was established. In those days most folks from western Sydney and the Blue Mountains had to travel into the city to attend University. Clare himself tracked across town to attend UNSW.
He makes specific reference to this saying, “Back then there was no Western Sydney University. It was established the year I finished high school. Today, where I come from, I can’t imagine life without it.
45,000 students, 15 campuses, teaching everything from medicine to engineering. Nursing to law. IT to urban planning. It has become an indispensable part of Western Sydney.” He said.
Vice Chancellors can only dream of this kind of support and buy-in.
