FOR Mikaela Attrill, having a university that teaches nursing in her home town is a great advantage.
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Ms Attrill chose Deakin University’s Warrnambool campus as her first preference to start nursing/midwifery studies this year because she wants to cut costs and study while living at home.
“I do not see the point of moving away when we have a good university here,” Ms Attrill said.
The Warrnambool College 2013 graduate was among those to take advantage of the first Experience Deakin event at the Civic Green yesterday.
The event was targeted at the many holidaymakers in Warrnambool during January and provided information about Deakin courses and research, as well as bus trips to tours of Deakin’s Sherwood Park campus.
Experience Deakin also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Deakin University in Victoria in 1974 and its merger with the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education in 1990.
Deakin’s Warr-nambool campus head, Professor Gerry Quinn, said Warrnambool was fortunate to have a university and a major TAFE institute, giving south-west residents a range of tertiary education choices to study locally.
“I hope Warrnam-bool is proud of what Deakin has achieved,” Professor Quinn said.
“I would like Warrnambool to be thought of as an education city, like university towns in Europe and North America.”
The campus taught about 1200 students annually, with numbers staying steady for the past few years.
It would soon open new studio apartments for 100 students, lifting the capacity of its on-campus accommodation to more than 300, he said.
The campus was a major employer and brought many new residents to the city.
“A fair few residents first came down to Warrnambool as staff or students,” Professor Quinn said.