Bulletin

Issue: May 2004

News

INU scholarship winners return

The advantages of studying abroad.

The first two groups of International Network of Universities (INU) 'Targeted Travelling Scholarship' winners from La Trobe University have returned from study abroad full of praise for the scheme.

The students are part of an ambitious scheme to encourage more Australian undergraduates to expand their horizons by doing at least a semester of their undergraduate degree in another country.

La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Osborne, is president of the INU, a consortium of recognised quality universities in Australia, Asia, Europe and America.

Of the first 13 scholarship winners, all top second and third year students, nine went to the University of Leicester (UK) three to Malmo University (Sweden) and one to the Helsinki University of Technology (Finland).

A second group of 15 La Trobe students were selected to travel in 2003, nine to Leicester, five to Malmo and one to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary).

Both groups of students met at a function hosted by Professor Osborne, who was one of the architects of the scheme, shortly after the 2003 scholarship holders had been announced.

Congratulating the new winners and thanking those who had returned for having been such good ambassadors for Australia, Professor Osborne said it was important for Australia to encourage more students to experience life in other countries.

He said there was an imbalance in the numbers of students coming to study in Australia from overseas and the number of Australian students going abroad.

'The INU scholarships are a step in the right direction and the government has now agreed to offer loans as part HECS for students who want to spend a semester overseas,' Professor Osborne said.

Typical of the first group of winners was Stefan Mauger, a Menzies College resident from Mooroopna who spent from September 2003 to February 2004 at Leicester University doing five full units and two half units for his Bachelor of Electronic Engineering and Master of Biomedical Engineering degrees.

'I am conscious of the many benefits I received at Leicester. They included the contacts I made with a different set of people and the benefit of seeing how another university operates,' Mr Mauger said.

'I experienced another culture because about 40 per cent of students at Leicester University are from abroad and a large number of people in the City of Leicester are of Indian or Pakistani descent.

'In addition, one of the great benefits to me as a student is the strength of Leicester University in the biomedical field, helping my ambition to be a biomedical engineer working with hospital equipment specialising in ultrasound and medical resonance imaging.

'Menzies College, its director, Dr Michael Shortland, and other staff, were of great assistance as was my faculty,' Mr Mauger said.

After scoring an 85 per cent average at Leicester, Stefan travelled extensively in Europe and Africa before returning to La Trobe resume his studies. He is now a Senior in college, with leadership and pastoral care responsibilities, and has become a firm advocate not only of studying overseas but of the benefits and opportunities of life in a residential college.

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