Mid North Coast university and further education news

A fully fledged university campus for Port Macquarie is one step closer.

In the Great Lakes area National TAFE Day is being used as a reminder of the economic and social contribution TAFE New South Wales makes to the economy.

Nambucca farmers will get a boost from group of north coast TAFE students graduates from today. The horticulture trainees will be able to join the Mid North Coast Agricultural Shared Labour Pool and work in the sugar, macadamia and tea tree industries.Macadamia farmer Clyde Dury wants to plant more trees on his Valla property and is looking to retire in the next few years.He says he'll probably give some graduates from the shared labour pool full-time work."One of the benefits of something like this is that you're getting people experienced in working on a property and in the future when there's a demand for someone permanent it's a good pool to look at to perhaps pick one particular person that seems to have really good abilities in a lot of areas and you can make them a permanent employee," he said.

A new food, soil and water research centre will be built on Charles Sturt University's site at Major Innes Road at Port Macquarie, thanks to $5.9m of government funds announced in last night's budget.

The Federal Government is to invest almost $6 million into a new Food, Soil and Water Research Centre on the mid north coast.

North coast academics say the region will be disproportionately affected by proposed university funding cuts.

Three TAFE students who studied their Certificate in Tertiary Preparation (TPC) at Murwillumbah placed in the top 25 in the state...