CQUniversity’s Townsville campus continues to go from strength to strength.

Not only has the inner-city university recently welcomed over 250 students to its Term 2 cohort, it also recently opened its doors to its newest purpose-built three-storey campus.

Featuring state-of-the art facilities including a high-tech nursing simulation training facility, PC labs, lecture rooms and breakout spaces, the new building is now a buzzing hive of activity with students making the most of what the facilities have to offer.

The new campus building is an addition to the existing floor that occupies the entire first level of the existing campus floor on Flinders Street.

CQUniversity Townsville and North West Queensland Associate Vice-Chancellor Kari Arbouin said she was pleased to see the student numbers continue to grow, once again cementing the need for Townsville to be a two-university city.

“In addition to expanding our physical presence in Townsville, we’re excited to also be able to contribute to the economic growth of our city by not just being here but also by hosting some large events that are set to bring some great benefit to our region.

“These include the CQUniversity Senior Leadership Conference that will see over 90 senior leaders coming from all over Australia for a three-day event that will be held right here in our city,” Ms Arbouin said.

“We’re also launching a university-wide National Reconciliation Plan from here which is fantastic.”

CQUniversity was welcomed to Townsville in 2014 when it opened a modest study centre to better service the 500-plus distance education students who were enrolled with the University in the region at the time.

The ensuing growth in student enrolments and community impact was phenomenal and soon after, CQUniversity moved into a larger and more prominent floor on Flinders Street.

“It wasn’t long before we found ourselves having outgrown that space too and before we knew it, our purpose-built, multi-level campus was built,” Ms Arbouin said.

This Term also sees the newest course offering in Townsville - a Diploma of Nursing.

“We were very excited to be able to offer the Diploma of Nursing and the uptake has been fantastic,” Ms Arbouin said.

“Having our campus as a hub for bachelor-level nursing students has been amazing and to top it off with diploma students utilising our labs really shows the diversity and comprehensive nature of our university meaning that we can offer anything from Certificates through to PhDs.

Ms Arbouin said that as she looked forward, she was excited about what CQUniversity Townsville would have to offer.

“We’ll be making some exciting course announcements for 2018 very soon but right now we have close to 1,500 students enrolled which is a huge growth in just three years,” Ms Arbouin said.

“Not only are we offering a number of on-campus courses, we’re also continually growing our distance education cohort because our flexible model allows students to enjoy academic support and benefit from facilities while still studying ‘online’.

“To think that we have come this far in only a matter of years is mind-blowing. I can’t wait to see what the future brings.”