Khatijah Yusoff

“The time here was very memorable. This was where I studied and played at the same time. This was where I met my other half, and this was where I got my PhD.”

In her own words (adapted from her Living History interview)

I am Professor Khatijah Yusoff and I was here in the 1970’s and 80’s. It was small then, we didn’t have all these trees, it was basically very new, and we didn’t have the tram coming right up to the University campus. I used to stay at Glenn College. I learned pottery and ballroom dancing, and had a lot of fun, so there were things there that I enjoyed.

The Colombo Plan was a scholarship from the Australian Government to bring people from Asia to Australia to study, but also to learn about the culture of the country. I had Australian foster parents in Warrandyte, so I kept visiting them and learning about how Australians live. Now we have the reverse Colombo Plan, where we expect the Australian students to come to Malaysia, for instance, and do it the other way around.

I feel that the ability for us to meet and live together, from all around the world, to be here at La Trobe, makes us what we are today and that makes La Trobe a leader in various disciplines.

I think La Trobe’s contributed a lot. The evidence is the new Agribio Centre where the Government has spent quite a few million to have a state of the art agriculture research centre. We do have some of the best departments in Australia, so I’m quite proud to tell people I am from La Trobe.