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John Hillhorst
After two years of discussion and speculation, the
Wakatipu will be the location for a $74 million international
school, attracting top students from around the world.
New Zealand United World College project director John
Hillhorst told the Otago Daily Times yesterday an
undisclosed site in the Wakatipu basin had been selected out
of nearly 70 considered nationally for the school.
The college would be one of 13 worldwide.
The United World College trust board had previously been
pursuing a site at Glenorchy, which had proved too difficult,
and after short-listing three other sites, one near Nelson's
Abel Tasman National Park and another in the Bay of Islands,
they had settled on the third site, in the Wakatipu basin,
pending negotiations with the owners, Mr Hillhorst said.
While the board did not have an agreement in writing and was
"still in discussion" with the owners, whom he declined to
name, Mr Hillhorst was sure the school would go ahead on the
site.
"It's a process that needs to be worked through," he said.
"At this stage, the board is confident that it will be able
to work with its preferred site in the Wakatipu."
The location would be announced once the negotiations were
complete and the landowners' wishes met, he said.
The "beautiful, iconic" site had been selected because of its
accessibility to areas for the school's outdoor recreation
programme, its ability to be granted resource consent, its
proximity to a supportive community and the "connectivity" to
international speakers via the airport, he said.
The college would be part of a global network of 13 United
World Colleges.
It would house and educate up to 250 scholarship students
from around the world, employ 85 staff and have annual
running costs of about $7 million, Mr Hillhorst said.
The colleges ran a demanding two-year academic programme
where students were selected on personal merit.
The college would pitch itself as the Rhodes Scholarship
college equivalent, Mr Hillhorst said.
While the original commencement date of 2012 was being
reviewed - because it had proved overly ambitious in the
current global economic climate - Mr Hillhorst said, "If we
had all the money in the bank it would be done by then."
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