THE question of creating more accommodation for university students in Dubbo has been answered by the Dubbo City Development Corporation (DCDC).
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The University of Sydney’s School of Rural Health and Charles Sturt University (CSU) Dubbo campuses both accommodate students who decide to study on-campus and those who come to Dubbo temporarily on a work placement.
DCDC general manager Rorque Poisson said although ultimately the two educational institutions would have the plans of creating more student accommodation, the two do collaborate in terms of looking after the students.
“If either of the universities gain an overflow of students coming to Dubbo, ultimately they want to take care of the students,” Mr Poisson said. “If CSU have spare rooms, I’m sure they would be filled by those extra University of Sydney students coming to Dubbo on a work placement.”
A spokesperson from CSU said they were unable to comment on the current occupancy rates of the accommodation at the Dubbo campus, due to the end of the academic year for the students.
Rural Student Placement Co-ordinator of the School of Rural Health (SRH) and Project Officer of the Rural Focus Group (RFG) Lyndsay
Lowe said medical students come to Dubbo from the University of Sydney Medical School to do a 32-week placement in either Dubbo or Orange, where they are currently accommodated at a heavily subsidised rate.
Other University of Sydney medical, dental and other course students may be accommodated for shorter periods.
Through the Rural Focus Group, Ms Lowe also places students from faculties of The University of Sydney and other universities into accommodation in Dubbo.
Ms Lowe said whenever students came to Dubbo and couldn’t be accommodated at the SRH Campus, one option is to stay at the CSU accommodation.
“My work with the Rural Focus Group involves encouraging students from the University of Sydney to undertake a short-term professional experience placement in Dubbo, in study areas such as education, health, engineering, agriculture and others,” she said. “Students who get out of the city and into the country can explore a whole range of career choices in rural areas.
“Accommodation costs are a problem for short term placements because students are often still paying rent in Sydney, often working to help support themselves and added travel and accommodation costs make a rural placement quite expensive.”
Fourth-year medical student from Sydney Sarah Parry said living on-campus at the School of Rural Health was a great experience.
“It’s great because we live so close to the hospital, and they really look after us here,” she said.