“A sub-optimal learning experience”: concerns mount over University High’s new CBD campus 

University High School is set to open a temporary campus in the CBD to address growing enrolment and capacity challenges faced by inner-city schools.

The state government announced on October 9 that it had secured a seven-year lease on 399 Lonsdale St in response to the increased demand for spots at the popular school. 

Previously an educational facility, the site will accommodate up to 400 students, with all Year 9s from the Parkville-based high school transitioning to the new location starting in Term One of next year. 

The school is currently operating a temporary campus for Year 9 students at North Melbourne Primary School. 

Parents, however, have expressed concerns surrounding the future of their children's education, with West Melbourne parent and schooling advocate Mary Masters describing the new campus as a “sub-optimal learning experience”. 

“Year 9 is a notoriously challenging year where kids are acting out and testing their boundaries. Is it a good idea to be putting them into an office building in the city?” she said.

There is no outdoor space at the new campus, with the nearest green area located at Flagstaff Gardens, around 650 metres away. 

Ms Masters emphasised that the issue wasn’t about conducting education within a high-rise, but in the inadequate communication and consultation with parents.

She referenced the experience of one parent of two local students, one of whom is in Year 6 attending classes at Docklands Primary School’s new campus at The District Docklands shopping centre. 

Ms Masters said that the parent’s other child, who attends University High, received a notice about the relocation to the CBD tucked inside a note brought home in their school bag.

“We understand that space is a premium and that our inner-city kids don’t necessarily get sports ovals and large backyards. We all live in a city, so vertical schools are what can be expected,” Ms Masters told CBD News.

“But if it continues to be this band-aid, piecemeal solution that we have seen at Docklands Primary and now at Uni High – splitting up the schools, putting more demand on teaching staff and budgets – that’s an awful long-term solution.”

“If it was to be a serious, strategic consideration of repurposing an entire office building for a high school, we know that can work. But there is not enough strategic planning and investment in permanent strategies.”

Ms Masters has also been an advocate for establishing a secondary school on an available plot of state-owned land in the Arden Precinct, emphasising that “there’s no reason not to” explore this solution to alleviate the capacity issues faced by schools like University High.

“There is so much state-owned land where you could just plonk a school - a significant school, the size of Uni High. The population projections the way that they are currently for the area, if they were to open a new high school tomorrow in Arden, it would be full,” she said.

“The way the government is dealing with it is detrimental to our kids and their learning. There’s such a clear solution – build a new school.” 

Minister for Education Ben Carroll said, “The new University High campus will make sure this excellent school can continue to accommodate families and students in its zone.”