Crook urges federal and state backing for WA School of Mines
Mar 22, 2010
The Nationals candidate for O’Connor Tony Crook has thrown his weight behind the WA School of Mines, backing calls for Federal and State governments to work with Industry leaders and establish a taskforce to keep the campus running.
Mr Crook said recurring fears that WASM will close and mining courses only made available in Perth, need to be addressed. He said the school's reputation came from its students' ability to study in a world-class mining region and therefore a sustainable plan to keep the campus alive was needed.
“WASM is a world class mining education facility, in a world class and historic mineral field and should therefore be preserved at all costs,” Mr Crook said.
“There is no question that the school of mines has faced difficulties, particularly with limited courses currently available and insufficient Federal funding.
“The Federal government needs to remember that they get the ‘dividend’ when graduates from WASM enter the industry and work hard to generate and produce massive amounts of wealth for the nation.”
Mr Crook also suggested that WASM offer some broad-based undergraduate first year courses in order to increase its school numbers.
“First and second year numbers are quite low, I am sure that more local students graduating from high school would consider furthering their studies in Kalgoorlie-Boulder if broad-based courses were offered,” Mr Crook said.
“By getting these students into WASM we may well see a transition into Mining-based courses, once they see the opportunities available.”
Mr Crook said if elected, he would also go into bat on the issue of regional loading to ensure that WASM received a fair share of Federal funding.
“The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations released an issues paper in December 2009 reviewing the allocation of regional loading for higher education institutions nationwide,” he said.
“This paper revealed that Curtin University of Technology is receiving a far smaller proportion of the regional loading for its regionally-based campuses in WA than others located on the east coast.
“Given that the Rudd Labor government has announced it is aiming for a target of 30 percent of tertiary graduates, it’s high time they injected support into regional tertiary institutions as well as city-based ones.”
Mr Crook applauded the President of the WASM Graduates’ Association, Tony James, in his calls for the establishment of a Taskforce comprising representatives from WASM, state government, federal government and industry to work together on the issue.
“This Taskforce has my full support and needs urgent attention,” he said.
“We need to heed the warnings of some of the school’s most prominent graduates and supporters, that unless far-reaching changes are implemented, this globally-respected campus will inevitably close.”
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