About Country Universities Centre
The Cooma Universities Centre (renamed the Country Universities Centre/CUC Snowy Monaro) began as a community-owned initiative to provide regional students with access to higher education. The Cooma community wanted to create a solution that would support its local students to achieve their educational aspirations, and to inject knowledge and qualifications into the local workforce. The closest universities in proximity to Cooma are over an hour’s drive away in Canberra, making it difficult for some students to attend, so a community solution was needed. Established in 2013, the CUC provides a dedicated higher education learning space for regional students studying at any Australian university with face-to-face student support, high-speed internet, and a local learning community,
About the partnership
CUC Snowy Monaro is jointly funded by Snowy Hydro and the Snowy Monaro Regional Council. Snowy Hydro gifted the Centre to the Cooma community in 2014 and Cooma Universities Centre became a charitable, incorporated, not-for-profit organisation run by a Board of Directors. The NSW Government recognised the positive impact of the Centre on the region and has provided seed funding to expand the model into twelve more regional communities in NSW.
In 2017, due to expansion of the CUC model into more regional communities, Cooma Universities Centre was renamed Country Universities Centre (CUC) Snowy Monaro and the incredible journey to change the future of regional education began. The network of centres has grown to operate in 20 regional communities across NSW, Queensland and Victoria with the additional support of the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment through the Regional University Centre’s Program.
