In June 1999 the Mid West Development Commission held a youth forum to encourage young people between 18-30 years of age to become involved in regional development. At that time the most important issue to emerge was lack of access to university education in the Mid West.
During 2000 the Geraldton University Access Group (GUAG) was formed and in June 2001 a delegation from GUAG (Lee Morton, Felicity Mitchell and Tony Brooker) travelled to Canberra, with the support of the Hon Wilson Tuckey, and lobbied the Federal government for regional allocation of university places. The delegation was successful and set an Australian first with university places allocated specifically for Geraldton.
The University of Western Australia, Curtin University of Technology and Edith Cowan University formed a consortium for the Geraldton university places. In November 2001, the hard work and dedication by organisations and individuals paid off as the Geraldton Universities Centre was established.
In 2006 the Hon Wilson Tuckey officially opened the Mid West’s own purpose built facility in Geraldton.
The GUC became the independent, not for profit, incorporated body we see today in 2010. This gave GUC the flexibility to negotiate with universities throughout Australia to expand the range of locally supported university courses available. This resulted in the nationally renowned supported distance education model operating at the Centre which sees GUC operating under three guiding principles:
2012 – With the support of $4mil in Royalties for Regions funding, Geraldton Universities Centre expanded its infrastructure and services to meet increasing student enrolments. 2014 – GUC’s Stage 2 building opened, doubling GUC’s teaching capacity with five additional classrooms as well as storage, toilets and hospitality areas.
2018 – The Commonwealth Government launched a Regional University Centre Program to help replicate GUC’s success by funding centres and smaller study hubs throughout Australia.
2020 – GUC further expanded facilities under this program, opening a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week study centre.
Awards
Indicative of GUC’s community approach, the Centre was presented the ‘Community Centric Award’ as part of the Australian Rural Education Awards in 2022. The award recognises an organisation that has placed a regional, rural, or remote community at its centre.
