As Pro-Vice Chancellor of Health Innovation and Dean of the School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, Professor Russ Hoye is playing a key role in delivering La Trobe University’s Health Innovation Strategy – a $170 million investment in teaching, research and infrastructure to boost Australia’s healthcare workforce by an extra 4000 professionals by 2030.
With construction of an $82 million clinical teaching building well underway, Professor Hoye believes it will transform both education at La Trobe’s Bundoora campus and healthcare in Victoria more generally.
The state-of-the-art facility will serve the public, while also providing allied health and psychology students with clinical placement experience. Within the School, the new state-of-the-art infrastructure will necessitate a reimagining of teaching and research operations.
It’s an ambitious logistical and educational challenge, but one that Professor Hoye and his team are ready to meet.
In his own words, Professor Hoye tells us more about the unprecedented opportunities of health innovation at La Trobe.
A commitment to Australia’s future health workforce.
“Along with La Trobe’s other health school Deans, I am leading the University’s commitment to reshaping how we educate and train the next generation of health professionals,” Professor Hoye explains. “Our strategy is intentionally bold. We are investing in new clinical teaching facilities across our campus network, redesigning curricula and strengthening placement partnerships to help meet Australia’s critical health workforce shortages.”
“What makes this strategy truly innovative is the integration of infrastructure, technology and workforce design. We are creating a model where students learn in highly authentic environments, supported by digital simulation and strong industry collaboration.”
“By aligning our research strengths with workforce needs and embedding clinical education into community settings, we are positioning La Trobe as the leading national contributor to a sustainable, skilled and future ready health workforce.”
Health education that reduces waitlists and benefits the community.
“The new $82 million clinical teaching building is transformative for our allied health students and for the communities we serve,” Professor Hoye says.
“For students, it provides access to highquality, purposebuilt clinical environments where they can undertake placements on campus, supported by expert clinicians and multidisciplinary educators. This helps reduce placement bottlenecks, a major national challenge, and enhances their learning through integrated simulation, casebased learning and exposure to realworld clinical caseloads.”
“For the community, the building delivers genuine, practical benefit. By offering costeffective services for people the public, we will help reduce pressure on the health system while giving students invaluable supervised experience.”
“It is a model where education and service mutually reinforce one another. Patients receive timely care, and our students gain confidence and competence.”
Partnering on health workforce and patient needs.
“Partnerships are a critical part of the University’s Health Innovation Strategy. We work closely with hospitals, community health services, rehabilitation centres, primary care networks and specialist providers to ensure our programs are deeply connected to contemporary clinical practice,” Professor Hoye explains.
“These partnerships allow us to codesign placements, develop shared research agendas and create education models that respond to workforce and service needs.”
“For students, this means structured, supported pathways into a wide range of clinical settings, with professional supervision. For staff, it opens opportunities to collaborate on research that has direct impact – whether improving patient outcomes, shaping models of care, or driving innovation in digital health and prevention.”
“Maintaining and developing these partnerships is critical to enable the University to increase student enrolments. These relationships are mutually beneficial, and they ensure that La Trobe continues to be a trusted, valued contributor to the health systems in Victoria and across Australia, enabling us to deliver our Health Innovation Strategy.”
Building innovation… together.
“As Dean, I am most proud of the extraordinary commitment of our staff and students to improving the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve,” says Professor Hoye. “Our School continues to grow in size, complexity and impact, yet our people remain deeply connected to the main purposes of supporting student learning and delivering impactful research.”
“As we move into 2026, our leadership team is focused on four key priorities. First, delivering our new infrastructure and ensuring these new facilities are fully integrated into our teaching and research operations.”
“Second, strengthening placement capacity and supervision models to support the significant growth in student enrolments across our allied health and human services disciplines. Third, supporting our researchers to lead national and international collaborations.”
“Finally, we are prioritising staff development including leadership capability uplift and general professional development. As we grow, we want to ensure our staff feel supported, connected and empowered to contribute to a vibrant and high performing School.”
