Flinders Medical School extended with $10m grant

Flinders University has announced that the construction of new teaching facilities for the School of Medicine is expected to be completed in 2009.

Flinders Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Barber, said the new facilities, funded by a $10 million grant from the Federal Government, would include a lecture theatre complex to seat more than 200 students, eight new tutorial rooms and an upgrading of existing teaching spaces.

Professor Barber announced the construction timeline – which will see builders invited to tender later this year – during a visit to Flinders University by the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Nicola Roxon, earlier this month.

“The new lecture and tutorial complex will complement Flinders new Health Sciences building which is nearing completion and will provide state-of-the art teaching facilities for the training of our future health professionals,” Professor Barber said.

“The $10 million grant, an election commitment delivered by the Rudd Labor Government in the May budget, will also fund new educational facilities at the Repatriation Hospital in Daw Park and the Noarlunga Health Services centre,” he said.

“We appreciate the commitment the Federal Government has made to higher education infrastructure which, in Flinders case, will also see an additional investment of $8.9 million from the Better Universities Renewal Fund in the upgrading of our facilities.”

Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Paul Worley, welcomed the significant investment in future training facilities.

“Flinders sees itself as a responsible and socially accountable medical school and one of the major concerns at the moment in society is a workforce shortage. As a result we have increased the numbers of medical students and have accepted increasing numbers of both Commonwealth and fee paying students,” Professor Worley told Flinders Journal.

“The new facilities to be funded by the Federal Government will enable all of our students to have the high quality education that they have come to expect at Flinders,” he said.

“In particular, this investment will enable us to improve the distribution of our clinical education to the Repatriation Hospital and Noarlunga sites. Flinders has a reputation as the leader in community-based and distributed medical education with our campuses extending from Darwin to Warnabool in Victoria. This new initiative will enable us to reflect the significant academic presence we already have at the Repatriation Hospital, in terms of research and teaching, and to develop that presence at Noarlunga.

“It also enables the high standard of anatomy and pathology teaching which Flinders is known for to be delivered for the large group of students at the Flinders Medical Centre campus.”

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