One must be careful not to read too much into RUN press releases. In reality it is not the case that more than negligible amounts of research take place at SCU; still less so at the Coffs Harbour campus. This is what one would expect from a commercial vocational training college which, by historical accident, is allowed to use the word "university" in its name. SCU graduates can manage a hotel bar, or pour a mean espresso, but are not expected to be able to think creatively or independently. It's too much to ask of the "less academically-prepared students" which constitute SCU's target market. Plagued by one of the countries worst student retention rates, SCU works hard to develop courses that will not challenge the barely-literate, in order to get the full three years worth of student fees from them.

Until last year it was at least theoretically possible to pursue post-graduate research at SCU, by offsetting graduate student fees with casual teaching work. This practice was terminated by a round of cost-cutting which now sees the majority of undergraduate students studying via distance education, either formally or as notionally internal students receiving "converged delivery"; i.e. distance education for which you can sit in a classroom and enjoy on a larger screen.

It is true that research takes place at the Marine Science Centre, but not by recent marine science graduates from the Coffs campus. Marine science degrees are still available at Lismore, for the moment.