About us

Save UTAS Campus Inc. is opposed to the Univeristy of Tasmania's plan to abandon the campus they were gifted by the Tasmanian Government at Sandy Bay in 1951.

We are a group of community members, academics, business operators, and students. We believe that UTAS should 'Stay in the Bay'. We are opposed to the UTAS plan to abandon the campus they were gifted at Sandy Bay, and we want proper consultation for the people of Tasmania before UTAS ploughs ahead with their wasteful plan.

We are campaigning for the University of Tasmania to:

stay on the Sandy Bay campus,
stop the plan to relocate the university in its entirety into the CBD, and
stop plans to build a 2700 dwelling micro suburb on the Sandy Bay campus.

Our concerns

The picturesque and well-serviced Sandy Bay campus is a dream location that other universities would embrace as their selling point. It provides a truly unique learning environment and it’s just 10 minutes from the CBD.
There has been a wilful failure by UTAS to genuinely consult the people of Hobart. Talking at people after the decision has already been made is not consultation.
The Hobart City Council has openly stated its intent to "support and facilitate" the relocation of the campus into the CBD, before UTAS had even lodged its application. There is serious doubt about the Council’s impartiality, and its ability to represent all ratepayers.
The traffic and parking impacts on Hobart and Sandy Bay have been ignored. There is no study on the inevitable parking and traffic chaos if UTAS brings thousands of extra cars into the CBD and Sandy Bay. Why not, and where is it?
The Sandy Bay campus can be easily refurbished and it’s wrong of UTAS to claim otherwise. Abandoning this campus and rebuilding it all over Hobart will also cause huge, unnecessary carbon emissions, which should be unacceptable for a climate-change focused university and a council that has declared a climate emergency.
UTAS has lost its way on educational outcomes and delivering an exceptional student experience. Its role is to teach, not develop property. But while it built up a property empire UTAS drastically cut down the number of courses on offer, and now it's cut student contact hours in those courses.
UTAS promised a grand architectural vision for Hobart and has so far delivered concrete boxes. Big concrete boxes. Any move into the city will mean more of these same overpowering buildings, which are largely inaccessible to the people of Hobart.
UTAS significantly overpaid on CBD real estate during its buying spree, which will artificially inflate rates and land tax for all the neighbouring shopkeepers and small traders in the CBD. Its size, political influence, and buying power is steamrolling the businesses and residents of Hobart, and there seems to be no oversight at all.