UNE reaches student milestone

THE University of New England, chiefly a distance education provider, has signed up its 20,000th student.

Sydney's Aaron Montgomery, is enrolled in a bachelor of psychological science as a part-time external student.

He said this flexible mode of study fitted in with his busy life.

UNE Chancellor Richard Torbay said it was the first time in the university's 58 year history that it had reached the 20,000 student mark.


"This achievement is on the back of growth in student load of more than 20 per cent over the past three years,'' Mr Torbay said.

Last year UNE announced a deal with education technology company Pearson as part of a strategy to pursue more online students.

The university hopes to use extra revenue from distance students to upgrade its residential colleges.


As it happened, this year had seen renewed interest in college life and most and near full, a UNE spokeswoman said.

In the year to mid-September, UNE had 20,039 students, 4620 of them on campus. The on campus figure for 2011 was 4124.

Total students were 19,247 last year and 18,450 in 2010.