Lithgow City Council mayor Ray Thompson said he held out hope that Western Sydney University would not be withdrawing from Lithgow, despite the university confirming it would not be running courses next year. 

The university occupies the Hoskins Institute on the corner of Bridge and Mort streets, which is owned by council.

The Lithgow campus was opened as a Western Sydney University outreach college on April 8, 2014, after beginning its courses earlier that year. 

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The last nursing students finished their course work at the campus last week. 

“Low levels of enrolment and lack of student demand in the Lithgow area mean the University has suspended programs for 2019 pending review,” a university spokesperson said in reply to a Lithgow Mercury enquiry. 

Cr Thompson said council would be making no move at the moment to change the use of the building “in light of what [the university] is saying”. 

He said, in conversations with council, representatives of the university had stated they were committed to the town but were reviewing their options for course offerings etc. 

“Any faculty in town is very, very important to Lithgow,” he said. 

“There is a need in regional areas for this, to give us a lift.”

He cited the ongoing success of the University of Notre Dame and the transformation of the Mitchell Teacher’s College into the Charles Sturt University campus at Bathurst. 

Lithgow WSU campus coordinator Christine Healey publicly thanked the community for all of its support through the nursing program, which had grown in numbers every year. 

“I had the pleasure of coordinating between 70-75 students as they commenced a nursing career. University data displayed above average to high academic achievements, results I am very proud of,” she said.  

She thanked the community, the school of nursing and midwifery and WSU. Ms Haley said she hoped the beautiful building would be put to good use in the future.