May 2025

As we enter the final weeks of Semester 1 teaching, we’ve continued celebrations with our newest graduands across our regional campus network. It was terrific to take part in graduation ceremonies in Bendigo during April. With more than 600 graduands, our largest graduating cohort from that campus, we held four ceremonies in Bendigo for the first time.

I also attended our annual Bendigo prizes and awards ceremony, where we joined with our generous prize donors and supporters at the Ulumbarra Theatre to recognise more than 75 students for academic excellence as well as their impact in the local community. I’m looking forward to being at graduations in Bundoora next week.

Meanwhile, the return of the Albanese Government last weekend with an increased majority means we can expect to see over the next few years the continued implementation of the Australian Universities Accord recommendations. A significant focus of the Accord is to meet future Australia’s skills needs by increasing participation rates, particularly among groups historically under-represented in higher education. La Trobe is strongly committed to advancing this ‘skills through equity’ agenda and we look forward to working collaboratively with the returned Government to help realise the vision of the Accord.

La Trobe’s humanities academics have provided extensive public commentary and expertise over the course of the election campaign, in particular, Andrea Carson, Nick Bisley, Bec Strating, Judith Brett, Dennis Altman, Natalie McKenna, Finley Watson, Phoebe Hayman and Nicholas Barry. Throughout the campaign and its aftermath, their insights have helped to build public understanding of Australia’s electoral system – the heart of Australian democracy – and the choices before the electorate. I look forward to further contributions from La Trobe colleagues on the outcome over the coming weeks, particularly as the Senate results get finalised.

Additionally, La Trobe Asia will host a post-election analysis webinar featuring the Hon. Bill Shorten joined by three of our eminent political experts on Tuesday 13 May. You can register here.

Recently, I have been attending staff meetings with colleagues in our Schools to talk about some of the key trends facing La Trobe and the higher education sector – local, national, and global – and the vital role of our Schools in helping us achieve our strategic mission, particularly by supporting our people, doing world-class research, collaborating with industry, and contributing to our innovation agenda. I am scheduled to meet with staff from every School by the end of May and look forward to talking with more colleagues over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I’d like to mention some recent activities and achievements from across the University.

Health innovation

Congratulations to Irene Blackberry, staff in the research and industry engagement team, and colleagues across the University who worked tirelessly to develop our successful bid to lead a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) focused on the care economy. I was delighted to join with Federal Minister for Industry and Science, the Hon. Ed Husic MP, and Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, the Hon. Ged Kearney MP, for an announcement about the Centre at our Bundoora campus on 24 April. The La Trobe-led Care Economy CRC is a 10-year initiative, involving 60 partner organisations and $129 million of investment, made possible by the $35 million grant under the Federal government’s CRC program.

Receiving funding under the highly competitive CRC program is testament to La Trobe’s outstanding expertise in health innovation and technology, as well as that of the many industry partners with whom we will collaborate to develop care technologies, data solutions, and workforce innovations to help address challenges posed by increasing demand and skills shortages across the care economy sector. Our Care Economy CRC will enable us to have significant impact in improving care quality and outcomes in Australia.

In announcing our Care Economy CRC, I erroneously stated that it was the first La Trobe-led CRC. I wish to correct this statement, and acknowledge Emeritus Professor Nick Hoogenraad and colleagues in the Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, who led a CRC for Biomarker Translation at La Trobe from 2007 to 2014, which received $31 million from the Federal Government and collaborated with US-based biotech companies Amgen and Becton Dickinson. Through this CRC and other projects, including programs delivered at the world-renowned La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Nick and colleagues have had a tremendous impact by translating laboratory discoveries into clinical practice to combat diseases like cancer. They laid foundations on which we continue to build today through our health innovation program at La Trobe.

Our impact on community health and wellbeing will be strengthened further following construction of our new $82 million clinical teaching building in Bundoora, which will help in our mission to address Australia’s chronic allied health workforce shortage. As well as training an extra 400 allied health professionals a year from 2026, the new building will house a clinic offering much-needed services to the local community, including orthoptics, speech pathology, podiatry, psychology, dietetics and nutrition, physiotherapy, audiology, and occupational therapy.

Accelerating industry partnerships

Congratulations to Begoña Heras, Paul Pigram, Sarah Bamford, Tze Cin Owyong and Yuning Hong on securing a total of $1.2 million under the Federal Government’s Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) scheme that supports nationally significant research projects in partnership with industry. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of La Trobe’s projects that aim to improve treatments for urinary tract infections, develop machine learning applications to support Australia's national security interests and help develop new products, and improve routine disease testing – all of which will have a big impact in the community.

Pressing on

The next book being published by the La Trobe University Press is a volume of selected writings by acclaimed La Trobe historian John Hirst, who taught at La Trobe from the late 1960s until his retirement in 2006 and served in leadership positions including Head of Department. John was the author of many influential books that shaped our understanding of Australia, including The Sentimental Nation: The Making of the Australian Commonwealth; Australia’s Democracy: A Short History; The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770; Freedom on the Fatal Shore: Australia’s First Colony; and Sense and Nonsense in Australian History.

Another La Trobe University Press book, Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New, has been selected as one of the featured books for the Northern Territory Writers Festival being held in Alice Springs from 29 May to 1 June. Bina co-author Gari Tudor-Smith is taking part in a panel discussion entitled Language is Power that will consider what it means to reclaim a language.

In other publishing news, Clare Wright’s book Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions has been shortlisted for the The Age non-fiction Book of the Year award. Winners will be announced tonight as part of the opening night of this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival. Good luck Clare!

University events

Last night, Nick Bisley moderated an Ideas and Society discussion about Australia’s alliance with the United States that featured former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs the Hon. Gareth Evans MP and renowned security experts Hugh White and Jennifer Parker. If you missed the event, you can watch a recording here.

Tomorrow, I’ll be visiting the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, which is dedicated to the culture and history of Chinese Australians, particularly in the central Victorian region. The Museum is a University partner and is currently exhibiting Chinese propaganda posters from the 1960s to 1980s from La Trobe University’s Stuart E Fraser Poster Collection. I encourage you to visit the exhibition, which runs until 17 August.

On 13 May, a launch event is being held at the Capital Theatre in Bendigo for the Billabongs Not Silos art exhibition co-presented by the La Trobe Rural Health School, the School of Education, and City of Greater Bendigo. The exhibition brings together storytelling and art to explore Indigenous perspectives on health, education and wellbeing and can be viewed at the Capital Theatre Foyer until 10 June. You can register here to attend the launch event.

On 29 May, the University's 2025 Partner Showcase will feature La Trobe researchers talking about their collaborations with partners from Wine Australia, Zoos Victoria, Carlton Football Club, and Safer Care Victoria. As well as hearing about the impact of these partnerships, the event is an excellent opportunity to network with industry professionals and policymakers. You can register here.

In closing

Good luck to those teaching in the final weeks of Semester 1 and preparing for exams.

I look forward to seeing colleagues at the remaining School all-staff meetings and during my upcoming regional campus visits. This includes a meeting of University Council and a dinner with local stakeholders being held at our Shepparton campus on 12 May, which will be an excellent opportunity to showcase our impact in regional communities as well as our new campus facilities in Shepparton.

Best wishes,
Theo