Global Utilities

La Trobe University
Equality and Diversity Centre

News and Events

La Trobe University awarded Employer of Choice


The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) released the 2010 Employer of Choice for Women citation list on the 14th March and La Trobe University has once again been successful in achieving the Employer of Choice for Women citation for 2010.  This is the tenth year in a row the University has received this recognition.  Status as an Employer of Choice for Women is granted by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency of the Australian government.

The Equality and Diversity Centre is responsible for applying each year and detailing the university’s approach and achievements across numerous criteria.

More information on the Employer of Choice for Women Awards can be found online.

International Women's Day


A lunch to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) was held at Chisholm College on Tuesday 9 March, 2010. The theme for this year’s IWD centred on:  The Importance of Providing Access to Education for All Women.  This year’s speaker was Ms Renae Davies, Overseas Program manager for the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) and Ms Aoham Al Dujayli a primary school teacher who came to Australia as a refugee in 2000.

Renae gave an insightful presentation about her role which primarily involved supporting local women’s organisations on the Thai Burma Border to implement projects promoting women's safety and security and active participation in decision-making. 

Aoham’s presentation was also very interesting as she talked about her journey as a refugee from Iraq and the choices she had made and the challenges encountered after she arrived in Australia.

Visible/Invisible Observational Study Wilmot Rd Primary School, Shepparton

Small grants were offered by the Shepparton & Goulburn Valley Network School Focused Youth Service Brokerage to run program partnerships in 2010 that may help young people remain focused and engaged in school.  The Equality and Diversity Centre and the Director of the Shepparton campus have formed a partnership with Wilmot Road Primary School to undertake a small observational research project “Visible/Invisible: Students perception of their lived environment”. Students in Years 5 and 6 will be encouraged to observe, analyse and write about their lives with the use of digital cameras. Their collection of images will be presented at a public exhibition in term three.

The Greater Shepparton region has the highest reported non completion of school rates in Victoria. There are multiple factors contributing to this including, refugee status, migrants from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and families that have been receiving welfare for several generations. Wilmot Primary School has one of the most culturally diverse populations of all the schools in the region and staff report that many children have also missed out on preschool education, creating a further layer of disadvantage.

Students will be encouraged develop skills that will be useful for lifelong learning in communication and observation through their meaningful engagement with their environment and a greater sense of connectedness to their school and the wider community including developing a sense that the University is interested in them as individuals and their potential for learning.

Support Program for Students with Refugee Background

This Equality and Diversity Centre support program for students with a refugee background expanded during 2009 and now has 66 students registered. Six students have now graduated from their studies.

In 2010 four students have received scholarships, generously provided by Residential Services, for free accommodation in university residences at Melbourne and Bendigo campuses.  La Trobe International has kindly provided a scholarship to cover course fees for a student who is currently an asylum seeker and not eligible for HECS-Help. 

The new academic year 2010 has seen a new group of students registering for support to help them get off to a good start in their university studies.  Following a call for donations of 2nd hand bicycles to give to students so they can ride to campus, Ms Di Lynn (Alumni Office) has kindly donated an almost new bike for one very lucky student.  Other staff who have offered to donate bikes include Christina Demers (Dept of Economics & Finance), Shane O’Meara (Faculty of Health Sciences) and Cameron Thomas, a student at Melbourne Campus.  Many thanks to these people for their generous donations to this support program.

In November 2009 the Equality and Diversity Centre also provided funding for three students with a refugee background (who are studying in the Bachelor of International Development program) to attend the Millennium Development Goals conference held at Melbourne campus.

Refugee Student Record Experiences Studying at La Trobe

Equality and Diversity Centre staff member, Claire Nihill, in collaboration with the marketing and communications staff recorded a video featuring a student with a refugee background from Somalia, Abdi Sharif, who is studying towards his oral health degree. He speaks positively of his study and support experience and his ambitions for the future. We hope this will encourage other students with similar backgrounds to undertake study at La Trobe. The video can be viewed from the EDC website.

Equality and Diversity Centre Activities


In the final months of 2009 the Equality and Diversity Centre was a sponsor for the following celebratory activities at Melbourne and Albury Wodonga campuses:


Clem Deng November 2009

At Melbourne, Mr Clem Deng, one of the graduating students from Humanities and Social Sciences was assisted by Ms Suzanne Fegan from the Language and Academic Skills (ESL) Unit, to organise a graduation celebration for some of the Lost Boys of Sudan who came to Australia and completed a university degree.  This event was attended by the Premier, and chaired by Professor Sandy Gifford, Director of the La Trobe Refugee Research Centre.

The Forum celebrates the academic success of the Sudanese Lost Boys in Australia, comprising around 30-35 Sudanese graduates from Australian universities.  This year, some of my friends and I are finishing our degrees, which we are very happy and proud about.  Those who have finished tertiary study around Australia are organising this forum to thank the Australian Government and the Australian people for the opportunity for university study.  Education is a wonderful gift, and we hope to extend the benefits of this as far as we can within Australia and abroad.

At Albury Wodonga, following the enrolment of many students with a refugee background into the University Bridging Program, Ms Claire Cunnington (International Office) and Ms Marita Quaglio (Equality and Diversity Centre) organised the inaugural La Trobe International Evening on Friday 30 October 2009.  It was a resounding success with around 200 people attending.  The target group was new arrivals and ‘international people’ linked to local learning institutions. Groups of students, together with friends and family, came from Wodonga Senior Secondary College, Albury-Wodonga Community College, Charles Sturt University and of course La Trobe.

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Albury-Wodonga International Evening

At the Melbourne campus in October 2009, the Equality and Diversity Centre was pleased to be a sponsor for the Best of Both Worlds: Somali Youth and Education for Bicultural Identity forum.

The La Trobe Refugee Research Centre, in partnership with the Somali Australian Friendship Association (SAFA) and the Victorian Young Somali Network, organised this one day Somali Youth Community Conference.

Somali Australians are one of largest recently arrived communities with refugee backgrounds. In Melbourne, young people make up more than 50% of this community and research shows that they are facing a range of challenges in becoming adults, achieving their dreams and building their futures in Australia and in the wider world. This one day community youth conference aimed to provide a forum within which Somali Australian young people could explore and reflect on their everyday experiences of spanning two distinct cultures – that of their Somali families and communities, and that of broader Australia.

Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Plan

La Trobe University has commenced the process of developing a new Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace (EOWW) Action Plan for 2010 - 2012. An advisory group of staff from across the University representing regional and metropolitan campuses, different levels within the organisation and academic and general staff will oversee the development of our new plan.

The new plan will look strategically at eliminating discrimination and contributing to equal opportunities for women. A key element of the next plan will be consultation with staff about their experience of discrimination and equality issues at La Trobe.

ALLY Program to Support Diversity


La Trobe University is developing an ALLY Network aimed at creating a more diverse and inclusive culture and creating greater visibility and awareness of the issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) students and staff. 

Shannon Kerrigan and Stephanie Chard are overseeing the development of this project and are keen to find people interested in undertaking the training and becoming an ALLY for the GLBTI community.  For further information can be found online.

Deafness Awareness DVD and Online Training for Staff

Equality and Diversity Centre regional staff members, Claire Nihill and Shannon Kerrigan, have been developing an online awareness program to help educate and inform staff on the best ways to work with Deaf students.

The online program will be delivered through the LMS and will include a short video which has been produced in collaboration with Marketing at La Trobe. The video includes a La Trobe student talking about how to work with Deaf students and a lecturer describing their experience of working with a Deaf student about what is good inclusive practice.

The program login details will be available on request and will be circulated to all staff who are identified as working with Deaf students. The Video will be available by mid-March 2010.

Real-Time Captioning

In order to improve service delivery for Deaf students the Equality and Diversity Centre has introduced real-time captioning to enable improved access to lectures.

Disability support staff, Sally Freeman, Alex Jarvis, Claire Nihill and Shannon Kerrigan, have facilitated the installation of wireless headsets and telephones, software installations, cabling and connections in lecture theatres to enable the delivery of the captioning service.

Students use their own laptop or one supplied by the Centre and are able to receive the text in real time (a few seconds delay) of what is being said in the lecture.

Students who have used this service so far have been impressed and believe the technology has significantly improved their understanding of the lecture content.

Vice Chancellor Welcome to New Students with a Disability

Equality and Diversity Centre staff members Claire Nihill and Shannon Kerrigan arranged for the Vice-Chancellor to deliver a special welcome to students with a disability which encourages them to contact staff for information and advice. The welcome can be viewed on our website.

Changes to Student Income Support - Youth Allowance

The Australian Government has changed student income support—Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY. Legislation was passed by the Parliament on 18 March 2010 and the first of the reforms will come into effect from 1 April 2010. Full details of the changes can be viewed here

The changes will particularly benefit students from low socio economic backgrounds and students who have to move away from home to study, including rural and regional students.

A summary of these changes is provided below:

Student Start-Up Scholarships

These changes mean all full-time university students who are eligible for Youth Allowance, Abstudy or Austudy payments will automatically receive a Student Start-Up Scholarship.  In 2010 this scholarship is valued at $1300 and this will increase to $2,128 in 2011 (indexed for inflation in subsequent years).

(While the Equality and Diversity Centre welcomes this initiative it should be noted that even with these additional scholarship funds, students on Youth Allowance or Austudy still receive less than people on unemployment benefits.)

Students who need to move away from home to study

Students who receive the Dependent rate of Youth Allowance or Abstudy and need to move away from home to study may also be eligible to receive a Relocation Scholarship.  This provides students with a lump sum payment of $4,000 in the first year of eligibility and another $1,000 in each subsequent year. The Relocation Scholarship amount will be indexed each year.

From January 2011 students who live in very remote, remote and outer regional areas, who have to move away from home to study and whose parents earn less than $150,000 a year will be eligible for independence under the existing rules.

La Trobe’s Mildura campus is the only La Trobe campus catchment classified as Outer Regional.  For more information about locations classified as outer regional, remote or very remote areas refer to map.

Changes to Parental Income Test

From 1 July 2010 there will be an increase to the Parental Income Test (PIT) threshold for dependent Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY customers. This will mean an increase in fortnightly payment for many Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY customers and many families will be able to access these payments for the first time. Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY recipients with parents earning up to $44,165 a year will qualify for the full rate of payment (not taking into account any earnings a student may get from part-time work).

Changes to 'Independent' criteria

From April 2010, students will be considered independent if they are 24 years of age or older. This will reduce to 22 years by 2012.


From 1 July 2010, students under 24 years of age who want to be considered independent, will need to demonstrate to Centrelink that they have worked 30 hours a week on average over 18 months in the last 2 years.

'Gap Year' Students

There are transitional arrangements in place to ensure that students who took a gap year in 2009 to work and earn the amount required to meet the independence rules, with the intention of undertaking higher education in 2010, are not disadvantaged by the changes to the independence criteria.

Between 1 July 2010 and 31 December 2010, students can be assessed as independent if they are considered a 'gap year' student. This means they:

  • completed secondary studies in 2008, and

  • weren't a full-time student in 2009 (that is, they took a gap year in 2009 to work and earn the amount required to meet the independence rules), and

  • throughout 2009 they intended to commence full-time study in higher education in 2010, and

  • will commence full-time study between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2010.

In addition to being a 2009 'gap year' student, they must meet one of the following conditions:

  • need to live away from your parent's home to study because it takes more than 90 minutes to travel by public transport from the parent's home to the university or institution (including waiting and walking times), or
  • parents' combined income in 2008/09 was less than $150,000.