Bulletin

Issue: July/August 2007

News

Repositioning La Trobe University - New strategic plan for the next ten years

La Trobe University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson, has released a ‘Green Paper’, launching University-wide consultation to develop a new tenyear strategic plan.

The University intends to implement the plan from the start of 2008.

The aim, Professor Johnson said, is to build on the University’s founding principles and to renew its unique commitment to socially responsible, inclusive, relevant and radical teaching, learning and research.

La Trobe University has achieved much during its first forty years, Professor Johnson said.

It has produced more than 120,000 graduates, thousands of top quality research publications, and continues to make major and sustained contributions to public debate in Australia and internationally.

‘We have physically expanded – on the Bundoora campus and by establishing five other campuses, in Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton, Albury-Wodonga, and in the Melbourne CBD – thereby extending the educational and research benefits of higher education to a very broad community.’

However, Professor Johnson said the context in which the University will operate throughout the next decade will be different.

‘There’s a more competitive labour market in which mobility of staff between universities is likely to increase. Students will pay higher fees for their education. They will expect universities to deliver high quality teaching to fit with the changing and more complex work and study schedules of their lives.

‘University revenue will become more diverse with increased competition for public funding and greater reliance on international and domestic full-fees and private sector research income.’

‘We need to ensure that La Trobe University will be in a strong position to respond to these and other changes in ways which benefit our research, teaching and learning activities.

‘This means we have to plan in a careful and calculated way and harness the considerable resources of the University. Then, in our 50th anniversary year in 2017, La Trobe will be an even stronger, more dynamic, and more successful university than it is today.’

Professor Johnson said staff briefings and discussion sessions will take place during July and August. The final document will go to the University Council in December for implementation from the start of 2008.

Vice-Chancellor Paul Johnson: renewed commitment to socially responsible, inclusive, relevant and radical teaching, learning and research.

The sixteen proposals in the Green Paper aim to:

• Clarify and document core principles and points of differentiation
• Establish and support integrated programs for student engagement
• Review, renew and refresh content and delivery of undergraduate programs
• Consolidate undergraduate programs and reduce teaching time by 25% by 2010
• Expand professional development support for sessional teachers
• Expand the range of graduate programs offered to international students
• Devise mechanism for promoting inter-faculty trade in teaching services
• Develop partnerships with other tertiary education providers, and enhance online learning, to ensure delivery of quality education in regional campuses
• Establish and support crossfaculty research institutes
• Devise and implement a workload model that recognises different levels of research activity
• Develop and implement mechanism for partitioning Commonwealth income into teaching and research
• Develop career and promotion pathways for academic staff who are teaching-focused
• Identify areas of overlap or duplication in business processes
• Implement a new budget model based on full cost allocation
• Develop a clear policy of responsibilities for external relations in all faculties, campuses and units
• Expand alumni relations and fundraising activities