New courses on offer in 2023

UNIVERSITY STUDY: UniSA Mount Gambier regional manager Ian McKay said he was excited about new courses being offered at the campus. Photo: Sophie Conlon

Sophie Conlon

With university offers out and accepted, Mount Gambier’s University of South Australia campus is ready to welcome new students in the coming weeks.

UniSA Mount Gambier Regional Manager Ian McKay said 2023 would be an exciting year for the local campus, with three new courses being offered.

“This year we got the opportunity for students to study a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education locally and there was some interest in that in the student preferences,” he said.

“We also have the opportunity for students to study Aging and Disability and Human Services, they are both majors for a Social Science degree that can now be studied locally.”

While he is excited about these new study options, Mr McKay said there is still strong local interest in degrees offered at the campus since it opened.

“We would expect nursing and primary education to continue to be the strongest degrees we offer in Mount Gambier as they always attract good student interest,” he said.

He said these degrees also fill a need in the region, with graduates always being quickly taken on by local employers.

Mr McKay knew it could be difficult for students to find accommodation, although he said most people studying on campus already lived in the Limestone Coast and South West Victoria regions.

“The accommodation is tight in Mount Gambier, the way we structure our tutorials locally is that students don’t have to be on campus every day and therefore our students don’t always have to move to Mount Gambier to study here,” he said.

“We have in the past, and we will again this year, have students from as far away as Naracoorte and Portland who commute because they may only need to come to campus two days a week.”

This, he said, was positive as students could still get the support of their community while undertaking tertiary education.

There will also be action outside the classroom this year and Mr McKay said excitement was building around the Forestry Center of Excellence.

“Hopefully we’ll have a clearer picture of what this is going to mean in the coming months,” she said.

He also looked forward to the new yarn circle being completed and officially opened with the graduation ceremony for the class of 2022.