Victoria University: Metro West (Footscray)

Great centre for University town connecting to community!

It was amazing!!!

This space was established in 2014 By Victoria University (obviously) as part of the Footscray university town initiative, the area is quite spacious, and there is a lovely cafe, the service is good, the staff are friendly, and the coffee is acceptable.

VU Metrowest shares its name with the metro west shopping centre, a shopping centre which does not get as much use and affection as it should.

VU metrowest seems to share the same problem with space to a somewhat lesser extent, the space like the shops is quite underutilised and the back area of the building sees little to no use other than the occasional art showing. (which are quite good i might add) some uni history,murals and artefacts that are being temporarily showcased as part of VU's centenary and one or two offices that see a bit of use here and there.

The second point of contention is the area it is in. It is not far from the Footscray Nicholson campus, but it would be good if they had placed it near Footscray park since it is the main campus , or even in an area that is equally close to both campuses. (this of course is merely personal opinion and you may or may not agree) Secondly it is in quite a shady part of footscray where lots of characters hang out, Note that footscray itself is quite safe and continues to become safer over time but sadly this part of town (nicholson street between Irving street and paisley street, and then the nicholson street mall between Paisley and Hopkins/Barkly street) does have lots of room for improvement. It is for this reason that I have decided to give the venue 3 stars instead of 4-5, the space has a lot of potential, it is modern and clean, the university could've done so much more to unlock that potential in my humble opinion.

So this place is a former Victoria University branch?! I somehow keep thinking that this place was once a mall or a shopping centre here?! It certainly has that 80's style mall-like interior and even the signage off Metro West wording font has a certain Miami mall 80's-like feel?! Maybe it was a mall say 40's years ago because it screams mini mall like the equally dead Prahran Jam Factory as well. Speaking off dead, it certainly looks like it on the inside with nothing but empty shop stalls around the area both above and bellow. It has nothing but medical clinics and employment agencies (not for long via July 4 2022 heh). I somehow feel that this place might off been once a truly great centre to have gone into but it has moved on or I have missed it decades ago?! That's weird as I used to come to Footscray via 2009 to 2013 here but I really think that I missed out something great that must of happened a long time ago here and it's passed on now....

I’m sorry if this is the university that has the course you want to do. Worst experience, you can imagine