Southern Cross students welcome return to studies

Despite a harrowing week of floods and devastation across southeast Queensland and northern NSW, the University has maintained its scheduled commencement of teaching.

Students at Gold Coast and Coffs Harbour campuses begin their 2022 studies with face-to-face classes while Lismore-based students will undertake Term 1 online.

Vice Chancellor Professor Tyrone Carlin said being able to start the academic year on time was a priority for the University as it dealt with the impacts of the floods this week.

“Our Lismore campus is in good order but it is also hosting a Recovery Centre for the Lismore floods and with hundreds of people there, we had to make the decision to switch to online delivery for those students for the first part of the year,” Professor Carlin said.

“The University community has been deeply affected and heart-broken by the devastation of lives and property across the region. So many of our own staff, students and their friends and families have suffered enormous loss.”

However, Southern Cross is joining the efforts that have swung so quickly from rescue to recovery.

Vice President Engagement Ben Roche said the University was already in discussion with local schools and business to offer support to help them re-establish.

“When the last big flood hit in 2017, this sort of support took the form of providing access to safe working locations, internet, electricity and running water,” Mr Roche said.

“Schools across the region are also battling to restore their operations and Southern Cross is keen to engage where we can help.”

Southern Cross was established in Lismore in 1994 and has expanded since to include campuses at Coffs and Gold Coast, currently home to about 18,000 students. It has pioneered a curriculum model unique amongst Australian universities, aimed at deeper and more engaged learning – known as the Southern Cross Model.

It has also pioneered Australia’s first degree program in Regenerative Agriculture. The University is renowned for the world class research it conducts in a range of domains central to our future including reef and marine ecology, the carbon cycle, soils and soil fertility, waste and recycling, health and education.