A UNIVERSITY AT NORWEST
PLANS for a university at Norwest have been unveiled by Mulpha. The Librarium and innovation joint venture is part of Mulpha’s vision to position Norwest as Australia’s premier smart city business and innovation hub.
Mulpha is offering an education provider a prime site in the Norwest City centre to establish a university campus to cater for the tertiary education and the vocational learning needs of the North West Sector. The site is connected to the new Norwest Metro Station and is in the centre of a 10-minute walk of the entire Norwest workforce.
Mulpha will partner with the successful provider to deliver a purpose-built state-of-the-art University building. The Librarium will be the centre of knowledge, education and innovation excellence at Norwest. It is proposed to contain a re-imagined traditional district library, an innovation incubation hub, a University campus and a roof top area for social interaction of the community at large.
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
In a call for expressions of interest, Mulpha Executive General Manager, Mr Tim Spencer said: “This is a unique opportunity for an education provider to create the future of workplace and community education in a masterplanned, mixed-use precinct that has extraordinary growth potential.”
Norwest is Australia’s premier master-planned mixed-use business park with 6,000 residents and 800 businesses currently employing over 30,000 people.
“We expect the successful provider to work closely with our community to help them manage and thrive in the digital age,” he said. “We see this as a natural extension to our already established Mentoring and Monthly Lecture Series program and an imperative piece of social infrastructure to drive technological change, continually upskill the Norwest workforce, provide professional placements, mentoring and research and development opportunities.
“There is immediate demand within Norwest and its surrounds for vocational training to provide the critical knowledge and skills that are required in the new-age world that is fast embracing us.
JOBS GROWTH
“Mulpha’s drive for a piece of infrastructure that delivers life-long education is anchored in our identification of the core skills we believe are required for the future: Self-leadership, flexibility and adaptability, mental resilience, collaboration and mental legibility skills,” said Mr Spencer.
Mulpha expects the successful bidder to start satisfying the immediate demand for vocational education within the next two years, with the development application targeted for lodgement with Hills Shire Council in 2021, and the university campus ready to go for the 2025 academic year.
Mr Spencer said: “Our goal is to develop in Norwest the infrastructure and culture that will foster the business collaboration, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit required in today’s global digital economy.
“Most business leaders today understand that we are all in the business of digital technology and harnessing it to create jobs and growth. This requires a different way of thinking, working and doing business – one that has lifelong learning and innovation at its core.
“This is a key part of our broader Norwest vision to become a lifestyle and business destination of choice for people to live, work and play. This Norwest community already has the key attributes for an innovative workplace culture as we have a high proportion of university educated people and small-to-medium business start-ups in the Hills district.”
