Parramatta is seen as a major economic catalyst that is set to transform Australia’s fastest growing city and the broader Western Sydney region.
Opened by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP the 14-storey, five-star building is the first vertical campus for the University, and the first of its campuses to be embedded in the heart of a major CBD.
It has been named the Peter Shergold Building in recognition of the University’s Chancellor, Professor Peter Shergold AC, and his outstanding leadership of the University and career at the highest levels of the Australian public service.
The campus, which is home to 10,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University’s School of Business and other discipline areas, is one of the most technologically advanced teaching and research spaces developed in Australia.
The campus is also home to Australia’s largest professional services firm PwC and government agency WaterNSW, connecting thousands of students with business, government and industry and creating more opportunities for work integrated learning, as well as fostering greater research collaborations with a focus on industry impact.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover says the official opening of Western Sydney University’s first high-rise campus is a major milestone in the University’s history, and marks a new era in how it delivers teaching and research and engages with the community.
A true 21st century university campus, the building’s striking exterior and interior design by firms Architectus and Woods Bagot dispenses with traditional lecture theatres and encourages innovation, interaction and discovery through the use of smaller, informal learning spaces such as group study rooms with screen sharing and video conferencing, and collaborative learning studios, spread across six floors of the building.
These highly-interactive, digitally-infused studios promote the ‘flipped classroom’ model of group-based learning, and include an extensive range of features such as writable walls and computers on wheels, through to high-tech cameras and interactive touch screens to allow students to share and compare work around the classroom – all powered by next generation, high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the building.
More than 550 digital screens and information panels are located throughout the campus, including a spectacular 7.5 metre x 1.5 metre curved LED information display which forms the centerpiece of the building’s lobby and can be viewed from any vantage point.
Equally as impressive is the digital way finding system, ‘Campus Navigator’, which, via touch screens, puts information at students’ fingertips, providing them with real-time updates on everything from their classroom timetable and available PCs, to weather forecasts and the next bus, train or ferry arrival.
The Parramatta City campus marks the completion of the first phase of the $2 billion Parramatta Square redevelopment – one of the largest urban renewal projects in Australia.
City of Parramatta Council Administrator Amanda Chadwick says having a major university campus in the heart of the CBD will be transformational for Parramatta.
