Research
La Trobe University is one of Australia’s leading research universities, as demonstrated by the national and international recognition afforded many of its staff, its ability to attract major competitive research grants, its publication rate, and the wide range of strong postgraduate research programs offered.
As part of its research development program, La Trobe University Bendigo has established several research centres to focus and foster research in areas of excellence. The centres are generally multidisciplinary, involving academics from a wide range of backgrounds. They work closely with industry and community groups in the region, and have established a number of regional collaborative research projects.
Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities
The Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities (CSRC) in the Faculty of Law and Management was established to support the University’s regional strategy by developing partnerships with regional communities, companies, organisations, agencies and individuals that serve to deliver mutual benefits to both the University and its regional partners; and by fostering, enabling and undertaking collaborative cross-disciplinary research that contributes to sustainable regional socioeconomic growth and development.
In these ways, the CSRC aims to improve understanding of what contributes to, and ensures, sustainable regional communities, and to be an internationally recognised leader in the scholarly discovery, preservation, transmission and application of knowledge of benefit to regional communities and their environments.
Students and staff who are interested in becoming involved in current and proposed projects, or who wish to develop partnerships to support an area of research interest, should contact the Director, Professor John Martin on (03) 5444 7804; email: csrc@latrobe.edu.au or website www.latrobe.edu.au/csrc.
Biotechnology Research Centre
The Biotechnology Research Centre in the Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering focuses on two main areas of research: fermentation technology and wastewater treatment.
Fermentation technology research includes investigation of the factors influencing exopolysaccharide production in fungi; fungal growth kinetics; the role of fermenter configuration on microbial metabolite production; and the physiology of overproduction of metabolites.
Wastewater treatment research involves both chemical and microbiological studies aimed at improving understanding of the operation of activated sludge systems, particularly those that remove nitrogen and phosphorus. Laboratory studies using sequencing batch reactors are carried out to identify the role of bacterial biopolymers in wastewater organisms. Analysis of the storage of these materials under operational conditions is used in process modelling and design. Grants from industry and government bodies have supported this work.
Staff from the centre have presented specialist courses for the wastewater industry in Australia and Europe, and work collaboratively with other Australian and overseas research groups.
Additional research areas
In addition to research carried out in connection with research centres, many staff are involved in either individual or group research in departments and schools. Examples of current projects are listed over.
Accounting and Business
- accounting and finance: the market for audit services; issues in taxation; international financial reporting standards; corporate social responsibility
- administrative law
- agricultural marketing channel dynamics
- consumer perceptions of genetically modified foods
- developments in online teaching and learning in Chinese studies
- events research, contemporary Australian monetary policy, financial deregulation and bank behaviour
- electronic commerce in the Asia-Pacific region
- factors influencing the formation of research and development consortia
- history of economic thought
- international business links between Asia and Australia
- Internet developments in China
- management: human resource management and industrial relations, strategic management, international management, health care management
- marketing and management of services
- marketing of tourism destinations
- organisational behaviour
- public policy
Biological sciences
- biosynthesis of natural products
- fermentation technology
- fungal genetics
- fungal physiology
- microbiology of activated sludge and fermentation
- muscle physiology
- neural circuits in the visual system
- plant–animal interactions
- tumour biology and metastasis
- wastewater treatment
- blood platelet inhibitory substances in snake venoms
Chemistry
- chemotaxonomic analysis
- chromatography
- colloid and surface science
- critical properties of pure substances
- environmental chemistry
- environmental monitoring of rivers
- organic analysis
- organic synthesis
- soil science
- thermodynamic properties of binary mixtures
- wastewater treatment
Education
- applied learning
- curriculum and policy
- gifted education
- health education
- information and communication technology
- language and literacy
- middle years
- multimedia education
- physical education
- pre-service teacher education
- science and mathematics education
- special education
- student welfare and guidance
- technology education
- vocational education and training.
Engineering, Geology and Physics
- acoustics
- application programming
- civil engineering materials
- environmental data acquisition systems
- finite element analysis for structures and acoustics
- geomorphology
- geotechnology
- humanitarian training
- materials characterisation
- mechanical properties of material
- micropalaentology
- non-linear structural analysis
- physics education
- pollen electron micrographs
- reinforced concrete
- transportation engineering
- water and wastewater management
Health and human sciences
- high-risk adolescents, in particular juvenile offenders
- drug and alcohol education/prevention for young people
- impact of critical care nursing on patient outcomes
- clinical learning
- evidence-based health promotion practice
- mental health promotion
- women’s health
- health promotion workforce development
- health promotion in general practice
- health issues for older people in rural areas
- environmental management systems
- Listeria awareness
- food- and water-borne infectious diseases
- telephone consultation
- cardiac rehabilitation
- men’s health
- needs analysis of rural communities
- nurses, caring and the elderly
- psychiatric disability
- rural health services, rural nursing and nurses’ education
- history of nursing
- program evaluation methodology
Information technology
- application of artificial intelligence techniques to problem solving
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems
- improving the retention rates of first year female computing students
- improving the teaching and learning of information systems
- improving teaching and learning of threshold concepts in IT
- understanding the successful development of information systems
- improving the ability of IT consultants to construct effective conversations with clients
- jobs skills in the IT discipline
- music information retrieval
Law
- access to justice
- legal aid
- legal profession
- community legal centres
- law of torts
- water law and policy
- universities and the law
Mathematics
- approximation theory, numerical analysis
- graph theory, foundations of geometry and space-time
- mathematical models in health care
- modelling internal migration in a regional context
Outdoor and Environmental Education
- environmental studies: bush, rock, local, river, winter alpine environments
- leadership
- natural resources education
- naturalist studies
- nature tourism
- outdoor education
- outdoor and physical education
- outdoor recreation education.
Pharmacy
- pharmacogenomics
- enteric p-glycoprotein drug metabolism
- drug interactions involving hepatic reactions
- improving pharmaceutical care outcomes
- consumers’ experience of medications
Psychology
- assessment issues in the clinical diagnosis of children
- humour (theories of humour, humour and personality, humour and mental health)
- psychology of tourism
- response bias and environmental attitudes
- theories of human cognition
- emotional responses and trauma after accidents and physical injury
- chronic pain experience from inception to adjustment
- alcohol psychopharmacology, migraine prevention
- the psychology of community life
- health promotion
Tourism, and hospitality management
- nature-based tourism
- community tourism
- environmental learning
- tourism marketing
- festivals and events
- regional tourism development
Links with business and industry
A number of research activities are carried out in collaboration with business and industry in areas such as geology, home brewing, fine arts, market research, rural ageing, cardiac rehabilitation, disability support, stabilised mine fills and wastewater treatment and management. For information about research areas not listed here, contact the relevant faculty office.
Course outlines
Courses offered at the Bendigo Campus are described under the following faculty headings:
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Faculty of Law and Management
- Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering
Within the faculties, courses are listed alphabetically at each level*. Some descriptions refer to regulations and assessment details that are specific to that course. These references are supplementary to those detailed in the student academic progress regulations and individual course regulations. Any questions concerning the interpretation of regulations by faculties should be referred to the relevant course administrator.
* Note that the courses offered in the Faculty of Health Sciences are listed alphabetically, under their respective Divisions.