Responding to a recent announcement by the University of Tasmania that the planned move to a centre-city campus will no longer go ahead in its entirety, the staff of the University Fellowship of Christians got together for a video conversation about the significance of this revised plan.

We discuss the changes to ministry among university students and other young adults that we have observed since the COVID-19 lockdowns and what inter-denominational community, ministry and mission looks like among Hobart's young adults in the 2020s.

The UTAS announcement

1:15–3:45  — The announcement to ABC News about UTAS pulling back from a complete move to the CBD.

3:45–6:09 — The announced 4 sites is really 8 sites. They feel further apart than they appear on a map.

6:10–7:30 — It is now a very different university experience than previous generations at UTAS and other universities.

7:30–8:18 — University administrations themselves are not great at facilitating community.

8:20–9:36 — UTAS Hobart has had a few smaller campuses for decades.

9:37–13:00 — A full move to the Hobart CBD could have worked.

13:01–13:41 — The new plan means all of UTAS will no longer move into the city, nor ever return to Sandy Bay.

Broad cultural changes to uni student life and behaviour in the 2020s 

13:42–15:03  —Various factors were already changing student life and behaviour prior to the planned CBD move and COVID lockdowns.

15:29–17:38 — Economic factors, leading to students living at home and working multiple casual jobs.

17:39–20:23 — Almost no student sharehouses in the 2020s, leading to loss of informal community and ministry opportunities, residential accommodation not all well suited for ministry and mission.

20:35–24:41 — Loss of central campus spaces and move to hybrid leaning means uni students’ lives are less defined by university. There’s no longer a general uni student experience.

24:42–25:58 — The usefulness of the category of ‘young adult’ (18–24 year old) rather than ‘uni student’.

26:03–27:22 —Ministry and mission is now different. There is no simple ministry ‘to students on campus’ anymore. It is no longer what people who were at uni in the 1990s or 2000s envision us doing.

27:46–33:53 — Examples of uni students who have proactively connected with campus ministry. Local commuter students and not involved in large church young adults groups. New arrivals to the city not fully integrated in churches. 

Learning from churches in university towns in the UK and USA

33:54–36:56 — Lessons to be learned from churches in university towns in the United Kingdom and the United States.  

36:57–40:07 — Advice to students on finding a church when they move cities to study.

40:08–44:04 — Applying UK/US church integration practices to the Hobart context in the first few months of the uni year.

44:05–47:29 — The importance of managing transition points well,  even for young adults who don’t move for study.