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Financial Indicators: Education
The Education sector contributed $407.6m (or 3.3%) towards MITEZ GRP in 2006-07, an increase of $26.4m from 2005-06. Despite the modest expansion in sector GRP the education sectors share of total GRP fell marginally by 0.1 percentage points. In terms of employment, education accounted for 8.1% of total employment in 2006-07, slightly less than the 8.2% recorded in the previous year.
James Cook University (JCU) is one of the largest regional universities in Australia with over 10,900 full time equivalent student enrolments and approximately 1,500 academic and research staff. JCU has two campuses situated within the MITEZ Region, located at Townsville and Mount Isa. JCU offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses, across the Arts, Business, Creative Arts, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Health Sciences, Science, Information Technology and Social Sciences. Recent additions to the Townsville campus include the School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. Additionally construction of a new building for the School of Creative Arts is underway.
In February 2007 the North Queensland arm of the Australian Technical College opened in Townsville. This purpose built facility has the capacity to train 300 students per year over four key trade areas, construction, engineering, automotive, and electrical.
The Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE remains the primary vocational education training facility in the eastern area of the region, while the Mount Isa Institute of TAFE provides training in the western area.
Key research organisations in the region, some of which have world prominence, include the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian College of Tropical Agriculture.
The following major capital outlays for education in the MITEZ region were announced as part of the 2006-07 State Budget:
- $7.4m to develop a specialist trade campus in Townsville (SkillsTech);
- $3.5m for the Tropical Science and Innovation Precinct at James Cook University;
- $2.1m to refurbish the vocational education training centre on Palm Island;
- $1.5m to complete major upgrade of multimedia initiatives at Spinifex State College, Mount Isa; and,
- $75,000 to establish an Indigenous Knowledge Centre on Palm Island.
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