La Trobe to get multi-million dollar expansion

LONG AWAITED INVESTMENT… From left, La Trobe Shepparton Regional Advisory Board chair, Sam Birrell, La Trobe University pro vice-chancellor (regional), Professor Richard Speed, vice chancellor, Professor John Dewar, head of Shepparton campus, Elizabeth Capp, Federal Member for Murray, Damian Drum and Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe at the La Trobe University Shepparton Campus, which will be receiving $5M from the Liberal and Nationals Government that will go toward an expansion of the building. Photo: Katelyn Morse.
LONG AWAITED INVESTMENT… From left, La Trobe Shepparton Regional Advisory Board chair, Sam Birrell, La Trobe University pro vice-chancellor (regional), Professor Richard Speed, vice chancellor, Professor John Dewar, head of Shepparton campus, Elizabeth Capp, Federal Member for Murray, Damian Drum and Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe at the La Trobe University Shepparton Campus, which will be receiving $5M from the Liberal and Nationals Government that will go toward an expansion of the building. Photo: Katelyn Morse.
LONG AWAITED INVESTMENT… From left, La Trobe Shepparton Regional Advisory Board chair, Sam Birrell, La Trobe University pro vice-chancellor (regional), Professor Richard Speed, vice chancellor, Professor John Dewar, head of Shepparton campus, Elizabeth Capp, Federal Member for Murray, Damian Drum and Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe at the La Trobe University Shepparton Campus, which will be receiving $5M from the Liberal and Nationals Government that will go toward an expansion of the building. Photo: Katelyn Morse.
LONG AWAITED INVESTMENT… From left, La Trobe Shepparton Regional Advisory Board chair, Sam Birrell, La Trobe University pro vice-chancellor (regional), Professor Richard Speed, vice chancellor, Professor John Dewar, head of Shepparton campus, Elizabeth Capp, Federal Member for Murray, Damian Drum and Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe at the La Trobe University Shepparton Campus, which will be receiving $5M from the Liberal and Nationals Government that will go toward an expansion of the building. Photo: Katelyn Morse.

AFTER many years of campaigning to gain funding for an extension, La Trobe University’s Shepparton campus has had their prayers answered. The local community has welcomed the announcement made last week that the Liberals and Nationals Government would be investing $5M toward the expansion, with La Trobe fronting an additional $7M for the project.

The planned extension will see the existing building expand south to Stewart Street, and while details are still to be finalised there is hope that things will start happening by the end of the year.

Federal Member for Murray, Damian Drum said, “This has been many years in the making. Anybody that has any understanding of education in Shepparton realises the importance of what La Trobe is doing right here in education.

“There are many other great cities in Victoria who are all trying to get a greater university presence in their CBD. Whilst our university presence is somewhat smaller in comparison, the fact that we have it in the CBD is something that we should be appreciative of. It is what a dynamic city into the future looks like.”

La Trobe University vice chancellor, Professor John Dewar said, “This announcement means the university can look ahead to the future with great confidence.

“We’ve been limited in meeting the demand from the community because of space restraints and we can now expand our enrolments to meet those local workforce demands.

“When the original building was built almost 10 years ago, there was a business plan that predicted the number of students that would be enroling over that next 10 year period, and we have far exceeded that projection.”

La Trobe University head of campus, Elizabeth Capp said, “This is super exciting for our students because we can offer more teaching and study spaces that make the experience for them the best that we can provide. We are really thrilled about that.

“It will also give us some capacity to think about our research work that we do here and the possibilities of expanding that, all of which means we can do more work with our community to look at workforce needs and the important outcomes of the research that we do.”

La Trobe Shepparton Regional Advisory Board chair, Sam Birrell said, “La Trobe Shepparton has been hugely successful in attracting students to its various courses and needs to grow its campus to accommodate the growing demands. This commitment from Federal Government will help achieve the campus expansions plans that La Trobe has.

“La Trobe has shown an incredibly strong commitment to regional areas, and to Shepparton in particular. Attracting skilled professionals for our businesses is a major challenge and if we can train our professionals locally, the research shows they will live and work locally.”