Global education provider RMIT Training has joined forces with Scape, Australia’s largest owner and operator of purpose-built student accommodation, to provide a one-of-a-kind student experience facility at Scape Franklin in Melbourne.
This partnership between Scape and RMIT Training marks a post-pandemic first. The planned 10,000-square-metre and $500 million student living and learning building at Scape Franklin is one of Australia’s largest commercial leasing deals in the past four years.
Scape Australia founder and managing director Stephen Gaitanos says its alliance with RMIT Training instigates a new era of “student success”.
“Scape Franklin will be the first building in Australia shared between a university and a purpose-built student accommodation provider – offering a unique live and learn opportunity,” Gaitanos tells Facility Management.
“Scape provides a more holistic living environment for students, so the more opportunities we can co-create with education partners to support their students to succeed while they’re studying, the better.”
A nation-first live and learn experience
The RMIT Training campus at Scape Franklin is set to open in late August 2024 and will feature co-working spaces, art studios, wet labs and student wellbeing lounges and accommodation services in the heart of the CBD. Students will only have to journey a short public transport trip to the RMIT city campus and other CBD staples such as Queen Victoria Market and nearby parks and basketball courts.
“Our new building provides contemporary purpose-built facilities, accommodation and security bundled into a vibrant location in the heart of the CBD,” says RMIT Training chief executive officer Jake Heinrich.
The current Scape Franklin building – acquired by Scape in 2016 – houses 940 student beds across apartments and studios of various sizes. Students are privy to study areas, lounges, a cinema, gaming rooms, terraces, barbeque areas and a ground-level café, Frankie’s Coffee. With the RMIT Training campus coming to Scape Franklin, Scape is hoping to secure other food and beverage operators for the remaining tenancies.
Increased support and care at Scape Franklin
The new campus will not only foster productivity and excellence but provide students with a calming and nurturing living and studying experience. Gaitanos confirms that international students enrolled in pathway courses will find particular delight in Scape Franklin – approximately 30 percent of international students at RMIT University have completed RMIT Training.
“The nature of RMIT Training’s pathway courses is that students are en route to the next chapter in their education journey, their next degree or to their dream course,” he says.
Gaitanos envisages students at the combined RMIT Training and Scape Franklin relishing the increased support and guidance and feeling prepared and equipped to pursue success.
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