News

A partnership project developed by Mansfield Adult Continuing Education (MACE) and Swinburne University will receive $2,231,256 in Victorian Government funding to increase access and boost the quality of higher education and training for students in the Hume Region.

 
The U2Uni project involves the development of a Facilitated Online Regional Learning Model to provide students with access to a three-tiered degree program. This program will provide multiple pathways and include tertiary transition skills and will work through Learn Local organisations throughout the Hume Region.

The aim of the project is to engage 60 learners into a higher education qualification in 2012 with a further 80 in 2013.

The funding is part of the Victorian Government’s $20 million Regional Partnership Facilitation Fund designed to increase alliances between universities and Vocational Education and Training providers in rural and regional Victoria.

Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall said the facilitation fund delivered on the government’s commitment to increase educational opportunities and quality education for rural and regional students.
“ I am pleased to announce Swinburne University and Mansfield Adult Continuing Education are working together to deliver this great new program.”
“Access to tertiary education and the opportunities it offers are important to Victoria’s ongoing social and economic development.”

MACE Chief Executive Officer Paul Sladdin welcomed the announcement saying that it is a great achievement for the organisation and would strengthen the existing relationship it has with Swinburne University.
“Earlier this year we announced the signing of an agreement which allows students completing diplomas at MACE be able to use as credit towards a degree at Swinburne.”
“The U2Uni project provides options for students to choose from a range of diploma study areas and upon completion they can pathway to an associate degree and then onto the third year of a bachelor program.”

Mr Sladdin said data showed young people in regional Victoria had fallen behind their metropolitan counterparts in a number of key areas, including attaining a higher education qualification and enrolment at university.
“In 2010 the school university participation rate for students in the Hume Region was 25% against a state average of 41%. With the facilitated online learning component of the U2Uni project students can enrol and study here in Mansfield or wherever they live in the region. We believe this will assist us in our aim of increasing the regional participation rate.”

Further details will be released in January 2012.