La Trobe University

Encyclopedia : L : LA : LAT : La Trobe University

La Trobe University is a multicampus university in Victoria, Australia. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora, two other major campuses are located in the Victorian city of Bendigo and NSW-Victorian border centre of Albury-Wodonga. The university has a number of other minor campuses at Mildura, Shepparton, Beechworth and Mount Buller as well as a campus in Melbourne's CBD. La Trobe also offers its courses offshore at international locations in places such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and France.

La Trobe is generally considered to be ranked amongst the top ten universities in Australia and was recently ranked in the top 100 universities in the world (Times Higher Education Supplement)[link] [link] La Trobe offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses across five major faculties, covering all the main learning areas. La Trobe is considered to be particularly strong in the area of arts and humanities, this was reflected in the THES, where it was ranked amongst the top 25 institutions in the world in this catergory and third best in Australia. It also has a strong international reputation in biomedicine and science.

Contents

1 History
2 Student life
3 Campuses

3.1 Melbourne (Bundoora)
3.2 La Trobe Research and Development Park at Bundoora (R&D Park)
3.3 Melbourne (City campus)
3.4 New City Campus
3.5 Bendigo
3.6 Regional Campuses
3.7 International

4 External links
5 See also

History

The university was named after Charles La Trobe, the first Governor of Victoria. La Trobe University commenced operations in 1967, becoming the third major university to be established in Melbourne, after the University of Melbourne(1855) and Monash University(1958).

La Trobe was established with the passing of an Act in the Victorian Parliament in December, 1964, upon a recommendation from the Third University Committee. Many prominent Victorians were involved with the process to establish La Trobe, believing that it was important to increase research and learning in Victoria. Tertiary education was rapidly expanding in Australia, leading the state and governments along with many other interest groups and individuals to set about creating a third major Victorian institution to accompany the University of Melbourne and the then young Monash University. One of the major individuals involved in the establishment process was then future Governor of Victoria Davis McCaughey. It was officially opened by Victorian premier Henry Bolte, whose Government had been instrumental in creating the university, in 1967 in a ceremony that was attended by a number of dignitries including the Prime Minister of Australia Sir Robert Menzies. Teaching commenced at the Bundoora campus in the first semester of that year. Complementing the strong humanities offering was a strong science underpinning and, for several years, the leading agricultural science course (commenced 1968).

The Bendigo campus of La Trobe dates back to 1873; the Bendigo College of Advanced Education officially amalgamated with La Trobe University in 1991, completing a process that began in the late 1980s as part of the Dawkins reforms to higher education. During the merger process, a controversial issue erupted when the university's head office in Bundoora raised concerns about the academic standards at Bendigo CAE. This lead to a public outroar in which Bendigo CAE students threatened the Bendigo Advertiser over publishing the matter in its newspapers. Several newspapers were burned in the protest.

The inclusion of the institute of Tertiary Education in Wodonga took place in the same year, with the other campus joining from 1993 onwards.

The university continued to prosper from the time of its opening, gaining a strong reputation in many areas. This was in part due to the calibre of the academic staff that were taken on by La Trobe. Several of these academics still remain, with many now amongst the most prominent intellectuals in Australia. (See List of La Trobe University people)

In recent times the University has suffered cutbacks in government funding, a problem experienced across most of the Australian higher education sector. In some areas though La Trobe has lost a greater proportion than others. For instance, the history department at the university was once by far the largest of any institution in Australia, however funding restrictions have led to a significant reduction in its size. In 1999 the Music Department was closed due to funding cuts.

The funding problems have now for the most part been dealt with and La Trobe is one of only two Australian Universities with a AA credit rating (along with Australian National University).

Recent higher education reforms by the Howard government have allowed Australian universities to increase fees and take in a greater number of full-fee paying students, and despite a large student backlash, La Trobe has taken advantage of the reforms, increasing fees by 25% in 2005.

The current Vice-Chancellor is Brian Stoddart, who took up the position in December 2005 (ratified February 6, 2006) after the resignation of previous incumbent Michael Osbourne. Osbourne had been in the position since 1990 and in one of the most controversial events in the university's administrative history, his tenure was extended for seven years in 1994 by then Chancellor Nancy Millis without consultaion of the board.

The current Chancellor is Sylvia Walton, AO, appointed by the University Council April 23, 2006 after Nancy Millis' retirement.

Former Governor of Victoria, Richard McGarvie, was Vice-Chancellor from 1981-1992. The university has continued to expand, with the opening of the Research and Development Park at Bundoora, and the upcoming opening of a second Melbourne CBD site.

La Trobe has strong affiliations with many Melbourne institutions such as hospitals, these include the Royal Women's Hospital, the Royal Childrens Hospital and the Austin Hospital.

Student life

During the 1970s and 1980s, La Trobe, along with Monash, was considered to have the most politically active student body of any university in Australia. The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) was a prominent organisation on campus, often with the cover of a front organisation sometimes encouraging the name 'La Trot'. The social activism of the university students is demonstrated by the following La Trobe students who were of a leftist persuasion that were all good friends at the time and played a major part in student politics; Bill Kelty from the ACTU and AFL Commissioner, former Treasurer Tony Sheehan, Don Watson, Geoff Walsh (Bob Hawke's press secretary, High profile union officials Brian Boyd, John Cummins and Garry Weaven, former federal treasury official and now Westpac CEO, David Morgan. Some other Labor figures and people from the left side of politics include Mary Delahunty, Phil Cleary and Michael Danby. Despite the general socialist/leftist atmosphere several conservative corporate/business figures and Liberal politicians have also emerged from La Trobe. In fact there are a number of current federal and state liberal politicians to have come out of La Trobe.

Though the student body at La Trobe is no longer as politically active as it once was, the trend is similar at all Australian universities. Nonetheless, Socialist Alternative, and Australian Labor Students (ALS) are still very active, with both the SRC and Union President coming from ALS. La Trobe student organisations (both SRC and Union) have been largely run by ALS over previous years, in coalition with various independent groupings. The Federal Government's forthcoming introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) is beginning to again politicise students.

There are two main student representative bodies on campus. The La Trobe University Students' Union is responsible for the Eagle Bar, Contact Student Services and so forth. The La Trobe University Student Representative Council, the principle representative body on campus, has an advocate as well as student representatives for welfare, disability, women and so on. It also publishes a student magazine, the notorious Rabelais, which was the subject of a Federal Court case in 1995 after the Office of Film and Literature Classification ruled that it "...promotes, incites and instructs in matters of crime" because of an article on shoplifting (reprinted from elsewhere).

The largest faculty-based student representative organisation on campus is the Law Students Association (LSA). Postgraduate students are dually represented by SRC and the La Trobe University Postgraduate Association.

The students at the Bendigo campus are represented by the Bendigo Student Association (BSA), a much less activist and political organisation than the student union. The BSA publishes the 3rd Degree magazine.

Campuses

Melbourne (Bundoora)

The Bundoora campus is the foundation campus of La Trobe and was officially opened in 1967, when La Trobe first began operations. The campus is set on 3.3 square kilometres (reputedly the largest university campus in the Southern Hemisphere) and is the home of most of the University's centres and institutions. The campus is the main base of all of La Trobe's faculties except education, which is based at Bendigo.

Bundoora has around 20,000 students on campus, and subsequently has many facilities such as restaurants, bars, shops, banks and an art gallery. The main library on the campus, the Borchardt, has well over one million volumes. Melbourne has the fourth highest population of international students (after New York City, Paris and London), this is reflected at La Trobe's Bundoora campus where over 60 nationalities are represented.

Bundoora also has substantial sporting and recreation facilities such as an indoor pool, gyms, playing fields, and indoor stadiums. The facilities are regularly used as a training base for the Essendon Football club and the Kangaroos Football Club considered moving their entire operations to the campus.

The Bundoora campus is also home to the La Trobe University Medical Centre and Hospital. The [Melbourne Wildlife Sanctuary] (part of the university) is adjacent to the campus.

La Trobe Research and Development Park at Bundoora (R&D Park)

The R&D Park was established in the 1990s to be used as a major centre for advanced research. Current tenants include a branch of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the Victorian State Forensic Centre, Rio Tinto Group's research centre/labs, Environment Protection Agency (E.P.A.), Co-operative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology (A La Trobe centre that recently received a multi-million dollar grant from Bill Gates for research into a malaria vaccine). CAVAL (a archival and research co-operative between the State Library of Victoria and libraries from all Victorian universities). In 2005, the Bracks government announced that $20 million would be spent developing the Victorian Bioscience Centre and the park.

Also on the R&D park is the [Technical Enterprise Centre] - a business incubator for new ventures in Information Technology, biotechnology and the life sciences.

Melbourne (City campus)

La Trobe has a campus located in Franklin Street in Melbourne's CBD. This is mainly used for postgraduate study and houses some of the university's research centres.

New City Campus

La Trobe recently acquired the heritage listed Argus building on the corner of La Trobe Street and Elizabeth Street. AUD50 million will be spent on the 2000 square metre six storey building, including adding an additional three floors. The site will be used by the La Trobe Law School and postgraduate business school. The university was looking for a CBD site and chose the Argus building because of its prominent position, its proximity to the Federal Court Buildings and its heritage. The university will continue to operate both city campuses with the Franklin street site focusing on health and biomedicine.

Bendigo

The main Bendigo campus, with 5000 students, is located three kilometres from the centre of Bendigo and is set on 33 hectares of land. Bendigo is the home of the university's Faculty of Education and most of the other faculties have operations there. The Heyward Library is located at the Bendigo campus.

The Osbourne Street Campus is a smaller Bendigo campus that is mainly used for examination facilities and is home to the La Trobe University Bendigo Athletics Track. The La Trobe Visual Arts Centre is a gallery located in Bendigo's famous arts precinct in View Street and was opened in 2005. Its architectual design is somewhat controversial. The Latrobe campuses in Bendigo are home to the major facilities used in the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games that were staged in Bendigo.

Regional Campuses

International

La Trobe offers a number of courses at several offshore sites. The courses are mainly in the areas of finance, economics, management, biomedicine, health and linguistics. These courses are mainly offered throughout Asia in countries such as China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Courses are also offered at a site in France.

La Trobe has affiliations with many other institutions across the world, where La Trobe courses are offered or exchange programs are offered. The majority of these partners are located in Europe and Asia. The most extensive exchange programs occur with Duke University, Trinity College, Dublin, University of California, University Carlo Cattaneo, University of Hamburg, University of Oslo, University of Barcelona, Kyoto Tachibana university, Hiroshima University, Tilburg University, University of Stockholm, McGill University.