Supporting the contribution of higher education institutions to regional development: peer review report: Sunshine-Fraser Coast, Australia

The Sunshine-Fraser Coast is a rapidly growing coastal region located to the North of Brisbane in South East Queensland. It is typified by a focus on tourism and relocation of people from elsewhere in Australia seeking lifestyle changes. The region has two, relatively young, campus-based universities. The OECD Peer Review believes that there is a strong potential role for the universities in building the knowledge economy. For this to happen there is a need to develop region-wide collaboration and shared strategies, including inter-university collaboration to support the knowledge economy agenda. There is also a need to improve incentive structures at the national, regional and institutional levels to support the regional engagement of the universities