Ex-Sydneysider STUART PEARSON looks at Bathurst and its future from the perspective of a new resident.
A university town is not a town with a university.
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Let me explain.
A university town is one where the tertiary institution has a significant physical presence in the city itself and an intimate involvement in the city's economic and social life.
University towns are not merely important places of education, but are also centres of economic, political, cultural and social influence.
There is a stimulating, intellectual "vibe" about the town, where young people discuss philosophy at the same coffee shop that retirees frequent. There are students performing plays, busking in the town square and often the centre of town is a pedestrian-friendly precinct allowing students and citizens alike to move easily from one location to another.
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When all these features are present, then the city becomes known as a "university town", as opposed to a town which just happens to have a university somewhere nearby.
Let's look at some typical university towns.
Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, was established on empty land and a town by the same name grew around it. Student numbers are currently 25,000 studying in the centre of a city of 122,000 (20 per cent).
Padua is also very old and occupies a site right in the heart of the city. The city of Padua has a population of about 200,000, of which 60,000 are students studying at the university (30 per cent).
Cornell University is one of the leading universities in the world. It was established in 1865 on farmland at Ithaca, in upstate New York. The university has a population of 23,000 students and the surrounding town has a population of 100,000 (23 per cent).
St Andrews, my personal favourite, was established overlooking the North Sea in the 15th century as a teaching facility for Augustine monks. Like Oxford, a town slowly grew up around it. Currently, the university occupies historic and modern buildings located throughout the town. The city has a population of 26,000 people, of whom just under 9,000 are students (34 per cent).
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The two features common with these examples are that each university is located in the town, with student numbers representing one-fifth or more of the town's population.
In comparison, there are currently 1800 students at the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt University, which is located on the outskirts of the city. The university student population represents only 4.6 per cent of Bathurst city's population of 39,000.
In recent times, there has been a slow but growing acknowledgement of the need to change the role of universities in their cities and communities. To become a university town.
To that end, Charles Sturt University has decided it needs to have a presence in the town centre of Bathurst. To clarify, only a part of the university will move, not the whole campus.
The university wants to have some of its activities relocated to the CBD. That way the students and CSU itself will become more engaged in the life and times of the city.
The first step to reaching this worthwhile objective was achieved when CSU and Bathurst Regional Council agreed to jointly fund a $200,000 scoping exercise that will then lead into a masterplan for the centre of town.
In my humble opinion, this is a wonderful opportunity to renew the heart of Bathurst into a vibrant, modern 21st century city, while still honouring and respecting its deep heritage past.
The way forward will be challenging and subject to much debate, but if the community is consulted properly, there is a genuine prospect for all of us to see Bathurst become the "city of the future".
To some, these words may sound like hyperbole, but I honestly believe this to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to literally transform our city into something quite magnificent.
