Regional Victoria benefits from new Health School
The new Bendigo Rural Health School has been described as a ‘radical and original’ model for health professional education and research across northern Victoria.
It provides two additional facilities, a clinical school and on-campus student accommodation.
Professor Johnson said the new School extends the University’s relationship with Bendigo Health and the Victorian regional health sector, transforming health care outcomes and services in northern Victoria and leading to greater integration of regional higher education.
‘Rural participation rates in health education will rise with the provision of some 800 additional student places, resulting in an extra 200 graduates each year.’
Federal Member for Bendigo Mr Steve Gibbons said he was delighted that the hard work by La Trobe University and his office had paid off.
‘In rural Victoria, seventy per cent of the current workforce is over 45 and expected to retire in the next five to ten years creating a significant healthcare gap.
‘Studies clearly show that students who study at regional campuses are much more likely to work in regional locations aft er they qualify.’
With expansion of the Bendigo campus a priority for the University, the new facilities support a recent Federal Government grant of $3.16 million to appoint four professors and supplements $24 million contributions by the Victorian State Government.