CONNECTIONS

W i n t e r i s s u e 11

www.vu.edu.au
cricos Provider No. 00124K
 CONTENTS
4. VC WELCOME
The VC writes about the launch
of VU’s new Achievement
Scholarships and that VU is to
become the first high-quality
hospitality teaching centre in
Melbourne’s west.
12. C RISES ON
THE ROAD
A VU-trained paramedic takes us
through his studies at VU and then
onto the road after he is recruited
by Ambulance Victoria.
18. SAP INSIGHT
International business
management software developer
SAP donates $1.5 million in
software to Victoria University
each year; what’s in it for them?
2 3
5. IN BRIEF
Two new honorary degrees,
$705,260 in ARC Linkage Grants
and the new Victoria University
Medals for Excellence are just
three of this issue’s In Briefs.
14. HISTORY OF
A RACE
Alumnus and sports journalist Gary
Watt spent six years researching
the 130-year history of a footrace
that has become one of Australia’s
most iconic sporting events.
19. PERFECTLY
FRANK
Justice Frank Vincent retires as
VU’s third Chancellor after eight
years of distinguished service
overseeing substantial change
across the University.
8. PATHways
TO SUCCESS
VU’s Pathways program offers
students pathways between VU
courses, and between VU and
other education providers.
15. ROTUNDA
CONVERSATIONS
For more than 10 years, literacy
teacher Bruno Lettieri has been
inviting speakers from the
Australian literati to evening talk
fests with students and the public.
20. BRINGING
THEM HOME
A 66-year-old Master of Arts
student and Vietnam War veteran
has been researching a feature
of the Vietnam War that has
preoccupied him for many years.
11. DOGS WARM TO
TOP END
Bulldogs players have been
using VU’s heat chamber to
acclimatise their bodies before
heading north to tropical
Darwin for their AFL games.
16. A MILLION REASONS
Fifty schools in Melbourne’s
west will each be offered two
VU Achievements scholarships
to encourage VCE students to
undertake further study.
22. LIVING IN
LANDSCAPES
VU art teacher David Ralph has
exhibited extensively in Australia
and overseas; his work explores
the interplay between the
natural environment and the
synthetic one.
30. OoH LA LA
To help hospitality students reach
the pinnacle of the gastronomic
arts, VU has teamed up with
culinary juggernaut, Le Cordon
Bleu International.
36. LiWC
From 2010, students enrolled
in almost every VU course will
participate in Learning in the
Workplace and Community (LiWC)
as part of their assessment.
PUBLISHER
Marketing and Communications Dept.
Victoria University
PO Box 14428
Melbourne VIC 8001, Australia
© Victoria University
CRICOS Provider No. 00124K
Background image: ©istockphotos.com/Delefraye Nicolas
24. FIT FINISH
TO SCHOOL
Many schoolchildren interested
in a sports career are jumping
at the chance to enrol in a VU
sports development diploma as an
alternative to VCE or VCAL.
31. man of peace
VU honours a man whose
unwavering commitment to human
rights helped free his country
from oppression and lead it to
independence and freedom.
37. FOREIGN EXPERIENCE
A 21-year-old student from
Botswana, now studying in
Malaysia, flew to Melbourne in
mid July as the lucky winner of a
VU sponsored tour.
CONTACT US
PHONE +61 3 9919 4956
EMAIL publications@vu.edu.au
www.vu.edu.au
26. THE BIG CHEESE
VU academic Nagendra Shah’s
world-class research on improving
the health benefits of dairy
products has elevated VU in the
eyes of the global dairy industry.
32. STUDENTS ‘IN REZ’
When a student chooses to live
away from home, finding a place
that is comfortable, convenient,
safe and affordable can be tough.
38. SOWING SKILLS
A parcel of land the size of
a house block is allowing
disadvantaged students to expand
their options for further education
and employment.
PHOTOS
Sharon Walker
Tim Burgess
Paul Phillipson
Ann Marie Angebrandt
28. CAMPUS
INTERNATIONAL
VU prides itself on having one
of the most culturally diverse
student bodies in the country,
if not the world.
34. T IMES OF TRAUMA
AND CRISIS
The fires of Black Saturday are
now past, but they remain very
much alive for many and have
important lessons to teach us
for the future.
39. N
 ew Books
Problem gambling, skills in
social work, sport sociology
and the history of the Stawell
Gift are among the topics of six
new books by VU authors.
COVER PHOTO
Students in VU’s Sport
Development program.
See story on page 24.
This publication is printed
on recycled paper.
 WELCOME
Welcome to the Winter 2009 issue of Connections.
As part of the University’s commitment to providing opportunities for the
diverse talent and potential of the young people of the western region of
Melbourne, I had the great honour in May to announce the launch of our new
Achievement Scholarships. Starting in 2010, these scholarships will encourage
120 secondary students to undertake further study, and will support them
for the duration of their tertiary studies. This issue includes a story on these
scholarships, which are an Australian-first.
We are also delighted that we are about to become the first high-quality
hospitality teaching centre in Melbourne’s west, thanks to a $2.7 million federal
grant under the Better TAFE Facilities initiative. This good news story describes
how the funding will be used at our Footscray Nicholson Campus to build new
state-of-the-art training and demonstration kitchens, and renovate our training
restaurant. The upgrades will help us build on our industry partnerships with
world-class organisations such as the Sofitel Hotel Group and Le Cordon Bleu.
As a multi-sector university offering higher, vocational and further education
opportunities, another feature explores VU’s Learning Pathways, which assists
students to move through different courses, as well as between our vocational
and higher education sectors.
You will also read about our very popular Rotunda Conversations with Australian
Writers series, presented several times a year by our Professional Writing
and Editing (TAFE) program. The event is becoming well known beyond the
University for its impressive literary speakers. Helen Garner, John Clarke and
Michael Leunig are recent speakers who shared their wit and wisdom with
students, staff and the community.
After a lifetime of work in the dairy industry, Professor Nagendra Shah,
a lecturer and researcher in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at our
Werribee Campus, was recently presented with the California Dairy Research
Foundation’s prestigious William C. Haines Dairy Science Award. In these pages
you can read about his research, which has led to groundbreaking developments
in the industry, such as the creation of low-fat mozzarella cheese and the use of
probiotic bacteria in yoghurt.
These are just some of the University’s recent activities and developments
that you can read in this issue. They demonstrate that, despite an increasingly
competitive environment, we continue to be active both within and outside our
community, and are confidently meeting the diverse needs of our students.
Professor Elizabeth Harman
Vice-Chancellor and President
August 2009
4 5
BRIEF
NEW MEDALS HONOURABLE MENTION
At this year’s onshore June graduations, eight students were awarded with the Two prominent members of the local community and the President of the
new Victoria University Medals for Excellence. Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (see story on page 31) were recently
awarded a Doctor of the University honoris causa by VU.
University Medals are awarded to students who have achieved academic
excellence and leadership over the duration of their course. They are awarded in Victorian Magistrate John Doherty received his award principally for his work
nine categories: undergraduate in each faculty (6); undergraduate honours (1); with young offenders. For six years he was the magistrate in charge of the
postgraduate by coursework (1); and higher degree by research (1). western suburbs, based at Sunshine.
To be considered for a higher education medal, a student must have attained a Doherty has been responsible for many new initiatives designed to assist
high distinction average with no fails over the duration of the course. young offenders to start afresh. Acknowledging the transformative potential of
education, Doherty has been particularly keen to encourage young offenders to
Medals will be awarded biannually at the two onshore Graduation ceremonies
return to education.
to students who are eligible to graduate and have completed their studies in
the semester previous to the relevant graduation ceremony. The Hon. Ralph Willis was awarded a doctorate for his service as a federal
politician and for his stalwart support of Melbourne’s west. Willis held the seat
Recipients of the 2009 University Medal were: Dr Robert Bozinovski, Gavin
of Gellibrand for 26 years, which covers Melbourne’s inner western suburbs.
Bruce Thistlethwaite, Hasret Niazi, Caroline Anne Lewington, Fiona Christine
Nicolson, Robert Gentile, Sarah Kate Westerman and Fiona Louise Morton. Since retiring from politics in 1998 Willis has continued to serve the community.
No award was given by VU College. He is currently Chair of Western Health and LeadWest, both important partners
of Victoria University.
At the mid-year onshore and offshore graduations, VU conferred 8163 awards
(4738 VE/FE, and 3425 in higher education).
ARC GRANTS The Hon. Ralph Willis was awarded a Doctor of the University honoris causa in June.
VU has been awarded three Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grants He is flanked by Michael Feehan and Linda Mellors from Western Health.
totalling $705,260.
‘Rural adjustment or structural transformation? Discovering the destinations
of exiting farm families’, has funding of $470,000 over six years, and will be
administered in partnership with the Department of Treasury and Finance. The
findings will recommend policies that facilitate growth and promote sustainable
rural businesses.
‘The effect of dietary fish peptides on biomarkers of human health – the
influence of processing conditions and the environment’, has funding of
$156,840 over four years, and will be administered in partnership with the
Geelong Food Co-products Cluster. The project will link declining fisheries and
human health.
‘Innovative zero energy membrane technologies to reduce water consumption
in the dairy’, has funding of $78,420 over four years, and will be administered
in partnership with Dairy Innovation Australia. Dairy products contribute $3.27
billion to Australia’s export revenue. Reducing the need for water will ensure the
industry remains competitive.
 BRIEF
HEALTH PEDALERS
A team of VU cyclists took turns to pedal more than 500 kilometres in 24 hours
in early April to raise money for Western Health.
The 14-member team of staff, alumni and students, dubbed the VU Diamonds,
faced blustery headwinds and rain to complete the Murray to Moyne Cycle
Relay between Echuca and Port Fairy.
VU engineering lecturer Euan Nichol was VU’s organising force.
“We drove from Melbourne at 4.30am on Saturday morning, and then started
riding from Echuca,” Nichol said. “We rode in teams of three or four, day and
night for 24 hours, against all kinds of conditions.”
Now in its 22nd year, this year’s relay drew 1650 riders in 120 teams from
Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Last year, the event raised
more than $1.5 million for health-related charities.
A team from VU’s bike user group is now training for an attempt on the world
24-hour record for a three-wheeled recumbent bike.
Euan Nichol (front), and members of VU’s cycling team prior to heading off to
Echuca for the 500km Murray to Moyne Cycle Relay.
MONEY FOR CENTRE
The Federal Government has granted $11.2 million for a purpose-built Trade
BRIEF
FUNDING FOR EXCELLENCE
Victoria University received $1.8 million in the 2009 round of the Federal
Government’s Learning and Teaching Performance Fund.
The Fund rewards excellence in teaching and learning under four disciplines for
undergraduate higher education students – Humanities, Arts and Education;
Science, Computing, Engineering, Architecture and Agriculture; Business Law
and Economics; and Health.
“VU has been recognised for its teaching and learning excellence across all four
disciplines,” said Vice Chancellor, Professor Elizabeth Harman. “This is a first for
us, a great achievement for everyone across the University and something we can
all be very proud of.”
VU was also recognised for its improvement across the four disciplines. “This
clearly demonstrates that not only do we strive to be excellent, but more
importantly that we do not rest on our laurels but continually strive to improve,
ensuring that we provide the very best teachers and learning experience for our
students,” Professor Harman said.
STUDENT PLATFORM
A new magazine launched by VU is giving a voice to disengaged young people
who lack positive educational experiences.
Platform is an initiative of the School of Youth, VCE and Community Education.
Launched at Footscray Nicholson Campus in May, its collection of poetry,
quotes, memoirs and anecdotes aims to help young people overcome their
immediate difficulties, while building their capacity to become successful.
“This is an unashamedly raw, black-and-white magazine that wants to be
picked up, put down, scruffed up, and above all, read,” says TAFE writing
teacher Bruno Lettieri.
The magazine also includes writing from teachers, welfare workers and
published writers sharing their own experiences.
Platform will be published four times a year. Contributions of up to 1500 words
that focus on supporting and encouraging young people are welcome from the
wider community.
Submissions to: bruno.lettieri@vu.edu.au
Liam Adams, named Male Athlete of the Year at the Australian University

NATIONAL CHAMP
Training Centre at VU’s Melton Campus. Sports Awards in May.

BLUE RIBBON HOSPITALITY
VU is to become the first high-quality hospitality teaching centre in Melbourne’s west
after receiving a $2.7 million federal grant towords a $5.0 million upgrade of its
training facilities.
The funding will be used at Footscray Nicholson Campus to renovate a training
restaurant; build three new state-of-the-art training kitchens and two theatre-
style demonstration kitchens; and upgrade change rooms, cool-rooms and
service lifts. The works will be completed by June 2010.
“These new facilities will complement our industry partnerships, and ensure
that we can develop the highest standard of cookery and front-of-house
education,” says VU TAFE Director Dr Anne Jones.
VU is already acknowledged as a leading provider of high-level hospitality
training, and has recently established collaborations with several world-class
organisations, including the Sofitel Hotel and Cordon Bleu.
The University plans to increase its Vocational, Education and Training cookery
enrolments by at least 300 students per year as a result of the upgrades.
The Western Edge Cluster Trade Training Centre will offer technical trade
subjects at Certificate III level to secondary school students. The Western Edge
Cluster is a consortium of eight schools in the Melton municipality.
“The funding will provide much needed financial investment in Melbourne’s
west,” said Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education Programs) Professor John
McCallum. “It will help provide the skills that are not only being demanded by
students, but skills that are needed in a rapidly growing area.”
The new facility will offer seven courses in electrotechnology, carpentry, fitting,
hairdressing and engineering. VU will teach three of the courses.
Professor McCallum said the development is an excellent example of the type of
educational use that the University is seeking for Melton Campus.
VU student and cross-country champion Liam Adams, 23, was named Male
Athlete of the Year at the 2008 Australian University Sport Awards in May.
Australian University Sport represents more than one million students at 42
member universities, and is the country’s peak governing body of university sport.
“I didn’t think I had any chance of winning because I was up against athletes
who had been to the Olympics,” says Adams, who is in his second year of a
Bachelor of Exercise Science (Human Movement) degree.
In April, Adams won a silver medal representing Australia at the World
University cross-country championships in France. Last year, Adams earned
gold in the 5000m, and silver in 10,000m events at the Australian University
Games.
Liam was named VU’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2008 and awarded a Full
Blue, the peak recognition for VU athletes.

6 7
 TO SUCCESS PATHWAYS

Ask any five year old what they want to be when they grow up. Whatever their
answer, it will nevertheless ring with certainty: “I want to be a nurse”, “I want
to be an astronaut”, “I want to be a policewoman”.
Regrettably, such self-assuredness often erodes with age. Many leave secondary
education unsure about their next step.
“I came out of high school without a clue what I wanted to do,” says George
Markakis. “My ENTER score was disappointing. I felt I didn’t have much choice
but to apply for a TAFE course. I chose marketing because in Year 12 one of my
favourite subjects was marketing.”
After completing a Diploma in Marketing at Victoria University, Markakis
progressed to the Advanced Diploma in Marketing, at the same time completing
a Certificate III in Business Sales. At the completion of his TAFE studies,
although he felt he had the practical skills to hold down a job, he chose to
articulate into a bachelor’s degree so he could gain the theoretical knowledge
that would improve his future career options.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) in 2008, he was
accepted into the graduate leadership program at Telstra, Australia’s largest
telecommunications company.
in the west and beyond,” she says. “The aim of the VU Pathways program is to
create approved pathways that include every course offered by the University.”
Previously, students had been able to apply for a credit transfer based on
Recognised Prior Learning (RPL), which aimed to take into account their
previous study. While this system was effective it could not guarantee the
number of credit exemptions each student would receive. With Pathways,
students know in advance exactly how many credits they will get if their
enrolment is successful.
Information about Pathway credits is accessible online via the Learning
Pathways database. The database shows the credits for which students are
eligible following successful completion of approved courses, and students can
search by course name and by education provider.
Currently, the database lists fifty-three VU courses plus many courses offered by
external providers.
Development of the Pathways program is overseen by Senior Deputy Vice-
Chancellor Education Programs, Professor John McCallum.

“From a TAFE student, to university graduate, to a marketing campaign

Alumnus George Markakis used VU’s Pathways program to launch his career
specialist all in four years – who says dreams can’t come true?” says Markakis.
as a marketing campaign specialist at Telstra.
His success was the end result of VU’s innovative Pathways program, which
provides formal pathways between TAFE and higher education courses.
Moreover, Markakis received credits for units of study he had already
completed.

By completing an approved pathway from TAFE into higher education – from

diploma to advanced diploma to bachelor’s degree – Markakis not only
rediscovered his passion for marketing but set himself up as a very attractive
candidate in the employment market.

VU’s Pathways program is based on course progression pathways between

the University’s vocational education sector (TAFE, VET, overseas vocational
training) and higher education sector. Similar arrangements have been made
between VU and fifty-three other Australian education service providers, plus a
further ten overseas educational institutions.

The impetus for Pathways is to recognise students’ previous achievements and

enable them to reach their full potential through the progression of their studies.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman says the Pathways program is an

integral part of the University’s strategy to enable more students to progress
from TAFE into higher education.

“Pathways will help to ensure that the University is better positioned to retain
its students and offer the greatest breadth of courses demanded by people here

©istockphotos.com/Vernon Wiley

8 9

The aim of the VU Pathways program is to create approved pathways that
include every course offered at the University. ©istockphotos.com/sodafish
“If VU offers a course for which there is no internal pathway then we will set
one up with a partner provider,” says Professor McCallum. “Approved Pathways
have already been established between the University and 63 education
providers.
“The signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with Kangan Batman TAFE
and the University of Melbourne is a reflection of our commitment to seeking
out new pathway opportunities that will benefit our students and the wider
community.”
The agreement between VU and Kangan Batman, signed in May this year,
provides for close co-operation in Indigenous education, early childhood
education, automotive studies, engineering, business studies, community
services, health and sport.
“In practice it means that Kangan Batman TAFE graduates in these subject
areas may apply for articulation into VU degree programs,” says Professor
McCallum. “We believe this will greatly assist students from the disadvantaged
north-west of Melbourne to gain university qualifications.”
The MOU between Victoria University and the University of Melbourne was
signed in May 2008. At the time, Professor Harman said: “Partnerships are a
key to the future. None of us can do it alone. This agreement is about drawing
on the complementary strengths of our two institutions to offer new pathways
to education and the creation of new knowledge working especially with local
schools and health providers.”
10
This MOU aims to offer new pathways for students into postgraduate
education at both universities. Initially the focus is on nursing education and
research; exercise science, rehabilitation and physiotherapy; health workforce;
teacher education; and educational transitions between secondary school and
vocational and higher education.
Graduates from both universities can apply for scholarships for postgraduate
programs offered at either university. The scholarships are worth $5000 each
with each University offering five in 2009 and 2010; rising to 10 in 2011.
Over three years the universities will each be providing $100,000 of
scholarship assistance.
Strengthening the links between TAFE and higher education as a means of
improving access to higher education, particularly for young Australians, is a key
Commonwealth Government strategy for increasing the number of skilled workers.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has stated that the Government’s target is for
20 per cent of Australians aged 25-34 to be degree-educated by 2025.
As VU develops its Pathways program, the challenge is to effectively
communicate the existence of pathways and their benefits to prospective and
current students.
The University has developed course maps illustrating where each course fits
within a designated pathway. The maps were published for the first time in VU’s
2010 undergraduate and postgraduate course guides.
“The idea is to provide students with a quick snapshot of how they can progress
between courses and upskill themselves,” says VU courses and Pathways
project officer Jeff Jones.
“The maps show every course grouped according to cluster and they have
been designed so that students can follow, where applicable, pathways from
Certificate I all the way to a PhD,” he says.
Following enhancements to the University’s website, it is expected that the
course maps will be published online by the end of the year, making it even
easier for students to visualise their educational aspirations.
In the meantime, the University is working hard to finalise credit arrangements
between courses so that more can be added to its expanding number of
approved Pathways.
“Extensive consultation needs to take place between course co-ordinators
before pathways can be approved,” says Professor McCallum.
“The process of finalising credit arrangements can be quite sensitive in that we
need to ensure the standards of courses are not compromised, while exercising
a duty of care to articulating students to ensure they receive the same level of
education as those who enrol and complete a course from the beginning.
“The challenge is to make sure we get it right and that takes time. As one of
only four dual-sector institutions in the country, Victoria University has already
demonstrated that it is well placed to lead in this area.
“The future of Pathways at this University is extremely promising and I have
no doubt there will be many thousands of students who ultimately follow
pathways to achieve their full academic potential – a potential that, without
this initiative, they might have believed to be beyond them.”
Craig Scutt
warm to top end
Dr Rob Aughey turns up the heat as the
Western Bulldogs gear up for victory in Darwin.
Each year Western Bulldogs footy players are plucked from the depths
of Melbourne winter and dropped into Darwin’s TIO Stadium for a game
guaranteed to assault their bodies.
“One minute the guys are training down here in the freezing cold, and the next
they’re playing a match in 27 degrees with 70 per cent humidity,” says Dr Rob
Aughey, a senior lecturer in Victoria University’s School of Sport and
Exercise Science.
Conjointly appointed to the Western Bulldogs and Victoria University (VU),
Dr Aughey’s responsibilities include preparing the players for the Top End.
Occasional AFL games are played in Darwin as a showcase and are subsidised
by the Northern Territory Government. While they bring in significant revenue
for AFL clubs they are also part of the official league fixture, so winning is
important.
To fully acclimatise, players would normally need to spend two weeks in Darwin
before the match. With the football season underway with weekly AFL match
commitments, such preparation is not possible.
One of the first changes Dr Aughey introduced to Bulldog players’ preparation
following his appointment in 2006 was to incorporate heat training in the
weeks leading up to the Darwin match.
“I’d seen the positive impact heat training had on elite athletes at the
Australian Institute of Sport, where I worked while completing my PhD at VU,”
he says. “I suggested to the Bulldogs that players could benefit from similar
training using VU facilities, including a heat chamber at Footscray
Park Campus.”
Photo courtesy of The Age
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
After selling the technique to Bulldog head coach Rodney Eade, Dr Aughey was
told: “Design us something we can implement.”
The heat chamber accommodates up to five players on exercise bikes. “Players
are required to ingest a pill that allows us to detect their core temperature as
they work out,” says Dr Aughey. “We also record data on their work rate.”
By analysing this information, Dr Aughey can predict how players will perform
under the conditions expected in Darwin. These predictions inform the coaches’
decisions about when to rest – or rotate – individual players during the game.
In June, when the Bulldogs played Port Adelaide in Darwin, the team made a
record number of rotations – over 120 – and won the match by 93 points.
Dr Aughey believes the Bulldog’s on-field success validates the work of VU
researchers involved in the community partnership between the two icons of
Melbourne’s west.
“The work we do is quality, evidence-based research,” he says. “Every two
months a committee of VU researchers meets with a delegation of club coaches
and executives. It’s an opportunity to discuss new initiatives and present the
evidence supporting the work we do.”
The partnership is underpinned by millions of dollars of investment in
collaborative projects, which will include a new heat training facility that can
accommodate up to 12 players.
Dr Aughey says while the work can be challenging the results are compelling.
“And yes, it is fun when you win.”
PHOTO: Bulldog players take a break in VU’s heat chamber at Footscray Park Campus
after a workout in preparation for their game in Darwin.
CRAIG SCUTT
11
 VU Paramedic graduate Roshan Raja prepares for a busy day’s
work with Ambulance Victoria.
ON THE Road
Paramedics are a special breed. Among the first to arrive at a serious accident
or a health crisis they epitomise the emergency services credo of keeping calm
under pressure. These highly trained men and women launch themselves into
situations most of us choose to avoid.
“I wanted to be a paramedic since I was about 17,” says Roshan Raja. After
graduating two years ago from Victoria University with a Bachelors degree in
Health Science (Paramedic), he was snapped up by Ambulance Victoria (AV) to
start his dream career.
“As a child I found the lights and sirens and the apparent glamour exciting,”
he says. “Later, when I witnessed the positive impact paramedics have on a
chaotic situation, I thought it would make for a rewarding job.”
When researching where to study, Roshan says he was impressed by the clinical
and practical focus of VU’s paramedic degree. “The University’s relaxed and
friendly atmosphere also appealed to me,” he says.
The collegiate culture of the course belies the fiercely competitive reality of
there being only 200 places offered each year to more than 1500 applicants.
Senior lecturer and course co-ordinator, Peter Hartley says VU is one of only
four places in Victoria where students can qualify to enter the paramedic
12
PARAMEDIC SCIENCE
profession. He says VU has invested a lot of money in the course. ”The facilities
we have at St Albans Campus are state of the art,” he says.
With the three-year course delivered at a fast pace, Roshan found the degree to
be good preparation for work as a real-life paramedic.
Roshan’s favourite parts of the course were the clinical/practical sessions where
students learned to perform key skills. These sessions were often attended by
operational paramedics who were able to offer pointers and tips on how to
perform effectively.
“Their ability to share their experiences and knowledge was invaluable,
especially when advising us on how to be flexible and adapt our practical skills,”
says Roshan. “I also enjoyed clinical placements with Ambulance Victoria where
we had the opportunity to ride along in an ambulance, giving us first-hand
experience of what it is like to be a paramedic.”
Stiff competition for employment means that some graduates have to travel
interstate to secure their first position. “Even for students who have excelled,
getting a job in Victoria straight out of university can still be pretty tough,”
says Hartley.
Paramedic students demonstrate their skills at VU’s 2009 Open Day.
After graduating in 2007, Roshan embarked on the gruelling and highly “This is especially the case with patients who don’t speak English, but who still
competitive process of securing a position with AV. The application process make the effort to hold your hand and give you a nod,” he says.
includes background and character checks along with rigorous psychometric Roshan is looking forward to a long career out on the road but says that in the
testing. Applicants then attend a Behavioural Descriptive Interview (BDI) with future he would like to develop his skills as an educator.
a panel of HR and operational paramedics. This is followed by a medical and
“Down the track there are several career options available in clinical
fitness test.
advancement, education or management,” he says. “While they all have their
Having passed all the tests, Roshan joined AV in January 2008 and was placed benefits I find education to be the most appealing.”
at Epping in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Like all new paramedics, Roshan
Future VU paramedic students may one day benefit from Roshan having heeded
was placed with a clinical instructor who acts as mentor and educator.
the call of the sirens.
He recalls his first day on the job. “We did an equipment and car check and
spoke about a couple of things, including scene safety. Then I went and met CRAIG SCUTT
the team manager. As I was sitting there chatting with him the radio sounded
and I was dispatched on my first job. I had a churning feeling in the pit of my
stomach as we sped through the suburbs. As the day progressed the nerves
settled. All in all, it was a great day that left me wanting more.”
Seventeen months into the job, Roshan says the lows are few and far between
while the biggest high is when someone you least expect makes the effort to
thank you.
13
of a race
Gift Final 1902
What do nineteenth century Australian goldminers and the ancient Greeks have in
common? They both invented a popular footrace.
The Stawell Gift may not quite have the profile of the Olympic Games, but when
bored Victorian goldminers started betting on running races in the township of
Stawell in the 1850s, they spawned a footrace that would go on to become one
of Australia’s most iconic sporting events, attracting professional athletes from
around the world.
The Stawell Gift is an annual 120-metre sprint that has been held 128 times
since the inaugural starting gun was fired in 1878.
VU alumnus and sports journalist, Gary Watt, spent six years researching the
history of the Stawell Gift for a book published by Legacy Books in October
2008.
Stawell Gift Almanac: History of the Stawell Gift is the first book to
comprehensively cover noteworthy facts from the first 127 years of Australia’s
oldest professional footrace. The Almanac is a collection of Gift statistics, stories,
and legends both past and present.
“After attending my first Gift as a teenager in 1978, I was fascinated by the
event and wanted to learn more about its history, its origins, its past winners,”
says Watt. “But I was surprised to find no real source existed that fully
documented its complete history.”
Watt’s book is full of larger-than-life characters whose stories are often stranger
than fiction.
14
ALUMNI
Characters like Noel Hussey who collected used lemonade bottles and bet the
refunds on himself to win the 1964 Stawell Gift – and he did. Or the story of
Goldie Heath who was attacked by gangsters before the 1933 race in an attempt
to take him out of the running. Goldie ran so fast in the preliminary heats that he
upset the bookmakers’ odds.
“It’s been fun to talk to past winners and find out about their superstitions,” says
Watt. “One bloke used to always put his left shoe on before his right. It’s only
sad that so many of the old-timers have died, taking their history
with them.”
Watt’s entry into sports journalism was serendipitous. He originally studied
wood and metal work at VU in the 1970s when it was known as the Footscray
Institute of Technology.
With the Footscray Nicholson Campus just around the corner from Flemington
Racecourse, Watt was able to satisfy his passion for horseracing, eventually
landing a job on a monthly horseracing magazine, where he reported on the trial
outcomes at racetracks throughout Victoria.
This experience developed into a sports reporting career. He worked off and on
for over 20 years for Truth, a society paper renowned as having the country’s
best horseracing guide. It was during this time that Watt acquired the nickname
‘Long Shot Watt,’ on account of his uncanny ability to pick unlikely winners.
He left Truth in 2000 to work on his Stawell Gift book, which Watt says he had
left simmering on the backburner for years.
Past Gift winners have praised the book as a long anticipated record of Australia’s
most famous and prestigious footrace.
YANNICK THORAVAL
rotunda conversations
It’s a cold winter evening at VU’s Footscray Park Campus, but inside the Toniq
Bar overlooking the Maribyrnong River, the atmosphere is cosy and warm.
There is hot pumpkin soup and bread in the corner, the intimate sound of
clinking wine glasses, and a genuine sense of camaraderie among the 100 or
so staff, students and community members who have come.
Tonight, they’re here to see award-winning satirist John Clarke. The high-profile
film and television personality will offer witty insights and answer questions
about his career, his sense of humour and Australian politics.
“I still find it amazing that the things I so love doing – writing and performing
– can be made to generate a living,” he begins.
The group is equally attentive to the student musicians who play beforehand,
and the earnest student poets who recite their works later.
The evenings are officially known as Rotunda in the West: Conversations with
Australian Writers, created by VU’s Professional Writing and Editing (TAFE) course.
Since starting at the Rotunda Community Writing Centre at VU’s Sunbury
Campus nearly a decade ago, an impressive list of speakers from the Australian
literati have agreed to take part, including Helen Garner, Martin Flanagan,
Ramona Koval, Raimond Gaita, Tim Costello, Barry Dickens, Dorothy Porter and
Michael Leunig.
The featured speakers are wooed by Bruno Lettieri, a VU literacy teacher of
more than 20 years with a passion for the transformative power of writing
and language.
PROFESSIONAL WRITING AND EDITING
He invites speakers whose writing inspires him, and who will understand the
evening is as much about honouring the audience – many of whom are writers
themselves – as it is about sharing their own stories.
“The Rotunda is a bit like a writer’s festival, but much more personal and
intimate,” says Lettieri. “It was originally started to inspire students, but then
their parents and friends started to come along.”
Several speakers have become regulars, and many first-timers vow to return
after they are officially conferred with the status of ‘Rotundian’.
“Everyone leaves feeling very energised,” says Lettieri. “For both the speaker
and the audience, we are trading in goodwill. People these days want some
kind of meaningful interruption to the way they live their lives.”
In a romantic and adventurous change of pace, Rotunda was recently taken
off-campus and on to a double-decker bus that stopped at rocky beaches,
historic piers and under the Westgate Bridge for twilight poetry readings by the
sea.
For more information about VU’s Professional Writing and Editing programs or
the Rotunda series, visit http://creativeindustries.vu.edu.au/prowriting.htm or
phone program manager Susanna Bryceson on 03 9919 2904.
PHOTO: Satirist John Clarke, one of the many celebrity speakers at
Rotunda in the West: Conversations with Australian Writers.
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
15
 VU Chancellor The Hon. Mr Justice Frank Vincent speaks at the launch
of the Achievements Scholarship program.
It was a cold day but the warmth generated by the audience was palpable
when Victoria University launched its new Achievement Scholarships in April.
The event took place at Raw Studio, an old warehouse that has been turned
into a gallery. It epitomises the sea change now occurring in many of the
industrialised areas of Melbourne’s west.
The launch was emceed by celebrity stand-up comedian, Rachel Berger, who
regaled the audience with stories of her own life in Melbourne’s west as a child
from an immigrant background.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman said the Achievements Scholarship
program was a unique initiative and an Australian first, and will encourage high
achieving VCE students in Melbourne’s west to undertake further study.
“The program reflects VU’s commitment to supporting the many highly capable
young people living in the west,” she said.
From 2010, fifty schools throughout Melbourne’s west will each be offered
two scholarships annually. One scholarship valued at $5000 per annum for up
to four years (maximum of $20,000) will go to the Year 12 student with the
highest ENTER score who successfully applies to enrol in a Higher Education
course at VU.
A second scholarship valued at $2000 per annum for up to two years
(maximum of $4000) will go to the Year 12 student with the highest ENTER
score who successfully applies to enrol in a Vocational Education (TAFE) course
at VU.
16
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
The Victoria University Foundation supports VU in its mission to transform lives through the power of education.
The Foundation supports and assists VU’s governing body to develop and maintain the standards, services and
facilities of the University.
REASONS
It assists VU to develop strategic alliances, and has assisted VU to secure support for key projects such as the
Australian Community Centre for Diabetes, the Access and Success education initiatives and for scholarships
such as the East Timor Scholarships Program.
The Foundation also supports a number of VU projects, including the new Sport and Learning Precinct at the
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Footscray Park Campus.
Foundation Directors provide strategic advice on the development of the Foundation and guidance on
fundraising initiatives, priorities and policies. They also advise on the management and investment of funds.
“The Victoria University Foundation will support the Achievement Scholarships,
Directors also play an important role in acting as ambassadors for the Foundation and VU. This helps to enhance
and to this end is seeking to raise $1.2 million a year,” Professor Harman said.
the community’s support and understanding of VU.
She added that the Western Bulldogs have agreed to commit $1 from each
The Foundation is a charitable fund and exempt from tax on its income, and is a tax deductible gift recipient.
member every year – around $28,000 in 2009 – to help fund VU’s scholarship
program. “This will fund the very first scholarship in perpetuity, and we are very For information, contact Ros Casey on +61 3 9919 1160 or email ros.casey@vu.edu.au
grateful for this demonstration of their commitment to education in the west.”
Dr Susan Alberti, who heads the Susan Alberti Charitable Foundation and is
a member of the VU Foundation Board, had already committed to giving five
scholarships from her foundation. She surprised the audience by announcing
that she would fund an additional five scholarships.
Others also gave generously to the program. Personal contributions were made
from members of VU’s Council, Bulldogs CEO Dr Campbell Rose and Chancellor
Justice Frank Vincent.
The scholarships will initially focus on schools in the municipalities of Brimbank,
Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton, Moonee Valley and Wyndham.
The new Achievement Scholarships are in addition to the 500 Equity
scholarships that VU already offers.
ANDY GASH
Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman (left) with
Dr Susan Alberti, head of the Susan Alberti Charitable Foundation.
17

INSIGHT
International business management software developer SAP donates $1.5
million in software to Victoria University each year, gives the University access
to company research, provides free training for VU staff and offers VU students
incentives to become consultants at SAP.
What do they expect in return?
VU has held an agreement with SAP since 1998 that enables the University
to develop courses and conduct research based around SAP’s suite of business
software. This intelligence is given back to the developer.
SAP software helps businesses co-ordinate their processes – such as human
resources, accounting, marketing, supply chain management, and supplier and
customer management – with increased insight, efficiency and flexibility.
More than 50,000 businesses in more than 120 countries now use SAP
applications to maximise their performance, as do students in VU’s accounting,
human resources and information systems programs.
“It’s like Microsoft Office for running a business,” says Paul Hawking, senior
lecturer in Information Systems in VU’s Faculty of Business and Law. “You’d be
hard-pressed to identify five big companies in Australia that don’t use SAP;
I’d say 90 per cent of the Federal Government’s departments run on SAP.”
Along with researchers worldwide, Hawking teamed up with the software
developer to design a global curriculum for teaching business intelligence, a
discipline concerned with mining data to explain the intricacies of business
operations and to anticipate future business trends.
The curriculum, Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, is based around the SAP
software. It is now written and used by universities worldwide, including in the
US and Germany.
18
©istockphotos.com/enot-poloskun
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
“VU offers more subjects that incorporate SAP than any university in
Australasia,” says Hawking. “That’s why we attract so many students from
overseas. Other universities in Australia teach no more than two units that use
SAP. VU teaches seventeen.”
Hawking says it’s not about teaching students how to use the SAP software;
it’s about teaching them business concepts and using SAP solutions to reinforce
these concepts.
“SAP courses are a drawcard for people who already work in a particular
industry, appreciate the demand for SAP skills and want to expand their
knowledge set.”
He says an accountant might want to understand SAP better, explore how the
product can add value to their organisation, learn how to integrate its various
systems and how to use it to anticipate future trends in their industry.
VU business graduate Vijay Ragavan says industry experience is usually entirely
different from what a student studies in colleges and universities. “However,
my course at Victoria University was one hundred per cent industry-oriented,”
he says. Ragavan now works as a SAP human resources consultant with Oxygen
Business Solutions.
VU has partnerships with international institutions to offer Enterprise Resource
Planning Systems education at offshore locations. These include Beijing’s
Jiaotong University and computer training provider KnowledgeWindow Asia.
YANNICK THORAVAL
The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent AO QC retired as Victoria University’s Chancellor in
August, on the same day he retired from the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal.
He was appointed as the third Chancellor of Victoria University in January 2001.
During his almost nine-year Chancellorship, Justice Vincent oversaw considerable
change in the governance and strategic direction of the University as it moved
to differentiate itself to create a unique and internationally relevant learning and
research university.
He steered VU through the often difficult waters of University funding to ensure
VU had a sustainable and growing future, and championed the notion of ‘one
university’ linking higher education and vocational with further education. He also
played a significant role in positioning the University in international markets,
particularly in furthering relations with China.
Justice Vincent brought his commitment to social justice to VU, and strengthened
the University’s relationship with the communities of Melbourne’s western region.
His unswerving belief in the power of education to overcome disadvantage
resulted in a dramatic increase in tertiary education opportunities and access for
those living in the region.
Similarly, he helped VU forge a strong relationship with East Timor, including
assisting the emerging nation to create a self-sustaining vocational education
system.
In a message from Premier John Brumby congratulating him on his retirement,
Brumby said that over the period of Justice Vincent’s Chancellorship, VU had made
a vital contribution to the State of Victoria.
“I particularly commend Justice Vincent for his commitment to tertiary education
in the western region,” Premier Brumby wrote. “The diverse communities who live
in Melbourne’s west will continue to benefit from his hard work for many
years to come.”
FRANK
At a farewell ceremony that was a genuine celebration of his contribution to VU,
Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman said Justice Vincent had played a
substantial and crucial role in the development of VU. She said he had exhibited
a level of commitment that was exemplary, and that he leaves VU as a highly
respected individual.
“VU values are deep in the bone marrow of Frank Vincent,” Professor Harman
said. “His values are VU values – not learned at VU, but brought with him to the
University nine years ago.
“People resonate at a very deep level to values that are not glib or spin or
superficial, but are simply about giving people a chance at life; about education
and egalitarianism; about the underdog having a go and making it. About simple
justice, even when justice is never simple.
“At Victoria University, we thank you for helping us to make the University what is
it today and what it has so much promise of becoming.”
Born in 1937, the son of a Port Melbourne waterfront worker, Justice Vincent
graduated in law from the University of Melbourne in 1959. He became a member
of the Victorian Bar in 1961, and in 1980 was appointed Queen’s Counsel.
In 1985 he became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He served as a trial
judge and was Chairman of the Adult Parole Board of Victoria from 1987 until his
appointment as a judge to the Court of Appeal in June 2001.
In 2008, he received the Order of Australia for his services to law and social
justice.
Deputy Chancellor, Commissioner Dianne Foggo, will be Acting Chancellor until a
new Chancellor is appointed in early 2010.
PHOTO: The Hon. Justice Frank Vincent AO QC and Mrs Dawn Vincent at the
Chancellor’s farewell ceremony.
STAFF WRITERS
19

Bringing them home
Jim Bourke’s two tours-of-duty in Vietnam in the 1960s
left him with more than just powerful memories.
They also earned him a gallantry medal after the war, a Pride of Australia
medal for mateship in 2007, the RSL ANZAC of the Year award in 2008, and
a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2009.
On top of that, the 66-year-old expects to complete a Master of Arts by
Research at VU next year, investigating a feature of the war that has
preoccupied him for more than seven years.
Bourke couldn’t understand why the bodies of six Australian soldiers declared
missing-in-action and left on Vietnam’s battlefields some 40 years ago were
20
RESEARCH
not recovered and repatriated. He decided to take on the inertia of governments
and red tape, both at home and abroad, and bring their bodies home.
“I just put myself in the position of their families, who didn’t ever know what
happened or if it was possible to recover the remains,” he says.
Now a retired grandfather-of-two, the Boronia resident started his quest in the late
1990s, quite by chance.
After leaving the army, he discovered that an American soldier he had known
during the war had died in Vietnam, and his body had never been recovered. He
decided to help investigate that case, and a few years into the process, he learned
of Australia’s own unaccounted-for soldiers.
“I knew a little about two Aussies who were missing, and I had a vague idea
that some other chaps were also unaccounted for, but I really didn’t have much
of a start other than that,” he says.
He approached government officials, Defence Force staff, and RSL executives,
but none of them shared Bourke’s sense of obligation to find the remains and bring
them home.
“I was told: ‘Terribly sorry, we don’t want to help you because we don’t want to
upset the families.’ End of story.”
Bourke was even put on a belligerent litigants’ register and told to desist from
his “foolhardy activities”. But he refused to stop.
He contacted the families of the missing six, then decided to establish
Operation Aussies Home in 2002 to conduct the “full accounting” of his fallen
comrades.
“I could see that many of the families were still hurting,” he says. “One of the
widows hadn’t even unpacked her husband’s trunk that was sent back to her in
1965 because she was still waiting for him to come home.”
Bourke traces his resolute determination to his own personal experiences, and
the death of his father when he was only 13.
“At that time children weren’t taken to funerals, and for a long time I always
imagined my father was going to come back into my life. I was never really given an
opportunity to acknowledge his death.”
In a quest that has consumed Bourke’s life over the past few years, he and his
volunteer team of navigators, surveyors, forensic experts, and linguists have
used witness accounts, military maps, and ground-penetrating radar to conduct
several searches in Vietnam.
Government interest was finally rekindled in 2006, primarily as a result of
lobbying from Bourke’s organisation, and from some of the six families.
The group helped locate the remains of two of the missing men in April 2007, a
third in November 2007, and a fourth in August 2008. Their remains have since
been brought home for burial.
In April 2009, searchers found the wreckage of the bomber flown by the last
two still missing, but no remains were found. Further investigations are planned
for later this year.
As a way to document his extensive work, Bourke decided this year to
extend his role in the project from that of participant to academic observer by
embarking on a Master of Arts.
Under the supervision of Professor Robert Pascoe and Adrian Threlfall of VU’s
School of Social Sciences and Psychology – who teach a first-year unit on
Australians at War – Bourke is busy piecing together a collective case study
that will explore the social, cultural and political factors that delayed the
searches for the missing six. He also wants to illuminate the culture of death
and grieving prevalent at the time of the Vietnam War.
“Up until the 1970s, there was this attitude of ‘stiff-upper-lip’ and denying
death. After that, it was recognised that people need time to grieve and think
about death when they lose a loved one.”
Bourke hopes that by doing some objective scholarly research about how
government and armed forces policies were developed, he can contribute to the
wider debate regarding the recovery of the remains of missing servicemen, and
avoid a recurrence of events similar to those that surrounded these six cases.
Bourke was awarded his AM in official recognition of his work with Operation
Aussies Home.
PHOTO: Jim Bourke: “One of the widows hadn’t even unpacked her husband’s trunk
that was sent back to her in 1965 because she was still waiting for him to come home.”
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
21
in landscapes ART
Hot August Night by David Ralph.
A Chinese proverb says that teachers open the door, but that students must
enter by themselves. That saying is also shorthand for artist David Ralph’s
approach to teaching. Ralph works as a sessional drawing and painting teacher
in Victoria University’s School of Creative Industries.
Ralph has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas and recently exhibited
a selection of his work at the Level 17 Art Space at VU’s City Flinders Campus.
He says his students were very interested in the techniques he used to create
his paintings.
“They asked many questions about the process: Why did I make certain choices
of colours? How did I apply the paints and so on. It was a good learning
experience for them,” he says.
His work typically explores the relationship between indoor and outdoor
settings, the interplay between the natural environment and the synthetic one.
In one of his works, a mall escalator adorned with a satellite dish ascends the
limbs of an ancient tree. “I asked myself, ‘Why do people have this strange
relationship with the landscape as something external rather than something
you live in?’” he says.
Ralph’s landscapes are not heavy-handed warnings about the perils of society’s
runaway faith in the benefit of technology, nor are they naïve, sentimental
longings for some lost pastoral ideal.
Instead, his landscapes ask viewers to contemplate their own relationship
with technology and the environment. How does a technology prescribe one’s
experience of nature?
22
David Ralph: “Why do people have this strange relationship with the
landscape as something external rather than something you live in?”
Asked what he believes makes a good artistic education, Ralph identifies a
blend of theory and practice as the most constructive education for burgeoning
artists.
“There has been a tendency for things to go high-tech,” he says. “Multimedia,
for example, has shrouded the more manual process of making art; the hands-on
aspect has been a bit neglected, which is partly understandable. There’s some
good technology around, but it shouldn’t obscure the importance of learning the
basics.”
Ralph’s other advice to aspiring artists is that producing art is hard work.
“An artist can’t afford to be shy, he says. “You have to market yourself. Enter
every event and competition you can. And get a thick skin.”
Ralph has twice been a contestant in the Archibald Prize, Australia’s premiere
competition for portraiture, with his paintings of Academy Award-winning
cartoonist Adam Elliot and iconic Aussie cricketer Shane Warne.
He has held solo and group exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris and
New York in recent years. He is represented by Arc One Galleries in Melbourne.
VU offers a Diploma of Arts (Visual Art) and a Diploma of Visual Art both full
time and part time. The Diploma of Visual Art includes specialisation streams
and electives. Both courses prepare students for a career in the Visual Arts,
particularly painting, by offering practical and theoretical subjects with the
intention of training students to graduate as self-sufficient artists.
The courses are offered at the City Flinders Campus. For information phone
03 9919 1583 or email ci@vu.edu.au
YANNICK THORAVAL
23

Students in VU’s Diploma of Sport Development, a fully accredited
alternative to VCE or VCAL for Years 10, 11 and 12.
24
finish to school
Ashleigh Mills is an accomplished 16 year old. The Hoppers Crossing resident
does well academically, plays district cricket for Victoria and aspires to a career
as a physiotherapist.
When the opportunity came up to complete her secondary school studies
outside a classroom and in a program focused on sport, she jumped at it.
Ashleigh is now in her second year of a three-year Sport Development program,
a fully accredited alternative to VCE or VCAL for Years 10, 11 and 12 students
who are passionate about a career in sports.
“I decided this program offered me more options for a sports career, and that’s
definitely what I’m aiming for,” says Ashleigh.
The program is run by Sports Education and Development Australia (SEDA) in
partnership with VU, which supplies some teachers and facilities, as well as
administrative support.
About 500 students around Victoria are now enrolled in the program, with
streams based around an individual sport – football, cricket, tennis, netball,
surfing, soccer or aquatic sports. The curriculum prepares students aged 16 to
19 for careers in sports administration, sports marketing, facility management,
coaching or sports media.
On completion of the full-time course, graduates receive their VCAL or VCE. They
also receive VU’s Diploma of Sport Development, with additional qualifications
in first-aid, coaching, event management, marketing and refereeing.
They also have direct pathways to VU’s higher education courses, including
sport physiology, exercise rehabilitation or recreation management.
Chris Reidy, a SEDA director, said the program fulfils a real need in secondary
school education.
“The growth of the program reflects the need to focus on young people’s
interests, and to provide curriculum outside the four walls of the classroom,”
he says.
SPORT
About 40 per cent of the program includes the same theory-based studies
as a regular school, but often with a sports focus and in a sports setting. For
example, Ashleigh and her classmates study in the clubrooms at the Merv
Hughes Oval near VU’s Footscray Park Campus. Instead of the regular curricula,
they look at cricket statistics for maths assignments, and study films and books
about sport for language analysis.
The other 60 per cent of the program is applied learning, conducted in
partnership with peak sporting associations. Students may find themselves
running AFL clinics on the MCG, co-ordinating a state swimming carnival,
managing soccer programs for primary school children with Melbourne Victory
or teaching yachting skills to people with a disability at Albert Park Lake. They
may be working with event management staff from Cricket Victoria on the
Boxing Day Test, assisting Tennis Victoria with tennis coaching programs in
schools, or promoting netball carnivals with Netball Victoria.
Jo van Son, head of VU’s School of Sport and Science, says the program offers
a different way of engaging students in education.
“Students wear a uniform and use a supplied laptop – the same as in many
secondary schools – but they receive invaluable practical training and work
experience during their studies,” she says.
The program was launched in 2008, and the first group of students will
graduate with their diplomas next year.
Students are selected by application and interview. Acceptance is not dependant
on sporting ability.
For more information or to apply, visit www.sedagroup.com.au or phone SEDA on
03 9819 9669, or phone VU’s School of Sport and Science on 03 9919 5580.
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
25
 BIG CHEESE
It has taken him three decades, but VU’s Professor
Nagendra Shah has finally matured as the big cheese
of international dairy research.
At the University’s food science laboratory at Werribee,
Shah has developed from scratch a cluster of world-
class research expertise that has elevated Victoria
University in the eyes of the global dairy industry.
“I began looking at probiotics 30 years ago and
everything grew from there,” says Shah. Probiotics
are the ‘good’ bacteria that occur naturally in dairy
products such as yoghurt.
Earlier this year, following a nomination by his
academic peers in Canada, Shah was chosen by a
committee of international academic and industry
experts to receive the prestigious California Dairy
Research Foundation’s (CDRF) William C. Haines
Dairy Science Award.
The annual award is presented to a leading dairy
researcher working anywhere in the world. The
Foundation flew Shah to San Francisco where he
attended an international dairy symposium to deliver a
paper on his latest research – and collect his award.
The award has now brought Shah and his small
research team at VU’s School of Biomedical and Health
Sciences to the attention of potential funding partners
around the world.
“We are currently in negotiations with three major
manufacturers in the USA and Denmark,” he says.
Yoghurt lovers might be familiar with L. acidophilus,
B. bifidus and L. casei, which are different strains of
bacteria that help prevent the growth of unfriendly
bacteria in the digestive tract. The addition of these
bacteria in probiotic or ‘live culture’ yoghurts is a
direct result of Shah’s research.
26
“In yoghurt we find five or six different bacteria all of
which have different growth patterns,” says Shah.
“My initial research looked at new methods to study
these bacteria so we could build up a clear picture of
how bacteria populations were behaving over time.”
This allowed his team to learn the conditions that
different types of bacteria need to survive, which led
to the development of strategies to keep good bacteria
alive throughout the shelf life of a tub of yoghurt.
“This was crucial for the industry as it needed these
bacteria to survive long enough for their health
benefits to pass on to consumers,” he says.
Shah’s work on probiotic bacteria led to pioneering
studies into bioactive isoflavones, which are types
of flavonoids (or antioxidants) that Shah says can
help fight hormonal imbalances in post-menopause
women and improve calcium absorption. He found
certain strains of bacteria could improve the bioactivity
of isoflavones, enabling them to be more readily
absorbed into the bloodstream.
Improving the health benefits of dairy products is
a hallmark of Shah’s research, which also includes
looking at ways of reducing the salt content of cheese
without it losing its taste and smell. He is also studying
the bioactive peptides (combinations of amino acids)
found in cheese to determine what health benefits
they might offer.
His research team has already had positive results
in the use of bioactive peptides to reduce high blood
pressure in rats, indicating that it may be possible to
use dairy products to help control blood pressure
in humans.
When Shah started at VU in 1991 he was only able to
do his research in his spare time between a heavy
FOOD SCIENCE
teaching load and setting up undergraduate and
postgraduate courses in the School of Biomedical and
Health Sciences.
“It’s very different now,” he says. “I am currently
supervising a small team of postgraduate researchers.
I am very proud to say that while we only have a
small group we have plenty to get excited about. We
certainly rank among the top food science laboratories
in Australia and possibly the world.”
In the past 10 years he has supervised around 25 PhD
and masters students, and a similar number of
honours candidates.
“One of the most important things for a researcher
is securing publications. This is how they build their
reputation, and it is especially important for PhD
candidates to be writing papers while earning their
degree. We try to get the students to complete an
average of six to 10 papers by the time
they graduate.”
Shah’s own output exceeds 170 papers in refereed
journals and more than 200 conference papers,
abstracts and book chapters. Over his 30-year career,
his work has spanned three continents, four countries
and five universities.
Apart from the use of probiotic bacteria in foods, his
research has focused on areas such as the functional
properties of milk, fermented dairy products and the
development of low-fat Mozzarella. The outcomes
of his research are being used by manufacturers,
researchers and analytic laboratories around the world.
For information about the California Dairy Research
Foundation and the research it supports,
visit www.cdrf.org
CRAIG SCUTT
Professor Nagendra Shah, winner of a prestigious international dairy award.
His research has attracted the attention of the global dairy industry.
27
INTERNATIONAL
A stroll around a Victoria University campus must be
like a walk through the United Nations building in
New York.
You might see a girl from China discussing an
assignment with a young man from Korea, or a group
of young men and women from Germany, India and
Malaysia using English as their common language to
make weekend plans.
With nearly 4000 students from more than 100
countries now studying at VU – around 40 per
cent of all students are from non-English-speaking
backgrounds – VU prides itself on having one of the
most culturally diverse student bodies in the country,
if not the world.
Providing those students with the right skills and
knowledge to help them feel comfortable, welcome,
and safe during their studies is a key focus of Victoria
University International (VUI). The international
student support team is widely recognised for
providing innovative projects, events and training to
meet this agenda.
In 2008, the team created a groundbreaking
DVD that includes a wealth of information to help
overseas students prepare for their stay in Melbourne
before they fly to Australia. The DVD was developed
with advice from current students and organisations
such as Victoria Police and the Australian
Customs Service.
VU’s international student support manager,
Samantha Thompson, says the successful arrival and
settlement of international students is crucial to their
overall academic performance.
“The first year is a particularly critical time in
building the correct foundation for a satisfying
student experience,” says Thompson.
28
In March 2009 an innovative project was organised
to address concerns about the safety of international
students in the community. Around 70 VU
international students and 10 police officers took
part in a cricket match to build trust, understanding
and relationships.
Vic Robb of Victoria Police’s multicultural unit says
cricket is an international language and one of the
best ways to engage with students. “It’s important
that we make ourselves available to build trust and
understanding on the critical issue of student safety,”
he says.
In June 2009, VUI vice-president Andrew Holloway
and members of the student support team
accompanied police and fire officials to India to brief
future students about what they could expect after
arriving in Melbourne. Students were advised on
what support was available, offered tips on safer
living and crime prevention, and told of their right to
feel safe, and when and how to contact emergency
services.
“We’re looking at a variety of ways of preparing
our future students so they have the best possible
experience when they get here,” says Holloway.
Other strategies for helping international students
with successful settlement have come from the
students themselves. When VUI staff discovered
that a high proportion of international students
they surveyed had no formal swimming training,
the student support team established a summer
learn-to-swim program at Footscray Park Campus’
Aquatic Centre.
“It’s a right of passage for young people in Australia
to go to the beach, and it made sense for us to teach
swimming and offer water safety tips in a safe and
positive environment so our students could be a part
of that,” says Thompson.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Social inclusion – interacting freely and closely with
local students – is also a key to creating a satisfying
experience for overseas students. VU’s Associate
Director of Language and Learning, Dr Amanda
Pearce, is taking part in a study to improve that
engagement and is interviewing overseas students
and academic staff as part of her research.
“It is important to promote social inclusion in ways
that connect closely to students’ study,” says
Pearce. Successful study-related initiatives already
exist at VU in the student rover program, in which
advanced students offer support to new students in
the Learning Commons’ areas situated on several
campuses. There are also student peer-mentoring
groups for particular subjects. Overseas and local
students are both mentors and mentees in these
programs.
Arukumur Selvamani, president of VU’s International
Students Association, came from India to study finance
and international trade at VU three years ago.
“It was hard because I didn’t know anyone and didn’t
really know what to expect of Australia,”
says Selvamani.
But after living in VU’s Student Village and getting
advice and support in his studies and social life,
Arukumur now has many Aussie friends and feels
that Australia is home.
Comprehensive information to help VU’s International
Students stay connected can be found at
www.vu.edu.au/international-students/life-at-vu
The site follows the lifecycle of an international
student from before they arrive in Australia through to
when they complete their studies.
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
Victoria University provides international students with the right skills and
knowledge to help them feel welcome and safe during their studies.
29

©istockphotos.com/Darkcloud
LA LA
HOSPITALITY
The runaway popularity of TV cooking shows such as ‘Master Chef’ and ‘Hell’s
Kitchen’ have helped make cooking an increasingly prestigious career choice.
To help students reach the pinnacle of the gastronomic arts, Victoria University
has teamed up with culinary juggernaut, Le Cordon Bleu International. The two
organisations have signed an agreement that will see new, internationally-
recognised culinary courses offered in Melbourne.
The design of VU’s Associate Degree in Culinary Management will be innovative
and unlike anything else in Australia in its seamless provision of TAFE and
higher education learning.
Students will learn underlying theory and front line practical skills from
respected experts in the field. The program will cater to skills required in
the more prestigious end of the market, the elite hotel chains, five-star
establishments and fine dining restaurants.
“The VU–Le Cordon Bleu qualifications will become highly valued badges in the
Melbourne culinary marketplace, and the graduates will be welcomed,” says VU
30
Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman. “Given Le Cordon Bleu’s worldwide
reputation, the potential employment market for graduates is not only Australia
wide, but global.”
Recognised by culinary professionals the world over, Le Cordon Bleu is an
international network of prestigious culinary arts and hospitality training
institutes. It continues to respect and maintain the traditions that have been the
cornerstone of French gastronomy for more than 500 years, while meeting the
challenges of adapting to modern demands.
Le Cordon Bleu will put the weight of its brand behind the program as well
as contribute expertise, and provide input on curriculum and opportunities for
student recruitment.
Barry OMahony, an associate professor in VU’s School of Hospitality, Tourism
and Marketing, says VU is working with Le Cordon Bleu to develop a cutting-
edge curriculum that draws on the strengths of both institutions.
“Graduates will also have business management qualifications,” says OMahony.
“Too often, when chefs open their own restaurant they fail because of a lack of
business expertise. This course will address that.”
New, $5 million facilities are being built at VU’s Footscray Nicholson Campus to
accommodate the new culinary program, which will be offered from the middle
of 2010.
PHOTO: Victoria University has teamed up with Le Cordon Bleu International to
offer internationally-recognised culinary courses in Melbourne.
YANNICK THORAVAL
His Excellency Dr Jose Ramos-Horta with The Hon. John Brumby,
Premier of Victoria, at the world premiere of ‘Balibo’ in Melbourne.
MAN OF
The President of The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, His Excellency Dr José
Ramos-Horta, was awarded an honorary degree by Victoria University in July.
Dr Ramos-Horta was admitted to the degree of Doctor of the University honoris
causa in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the defence of human
rights and for his contribution to establishing the independence of Timor-Leste.
At the ceremony, VU’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman said
that Dr Ramos-Horta had not only survived imperialism, colonialism and
post-colonialism, he had helped lead his people through these challenges to
experience independence and freedom from oppression.
“He has done this with dignity, with humility, and with forgiveness,” Professor
Harman said. “For twenty-four years, Dr Ramos-Horta dedicated his life to
denouncing the Indonesian occupation and annexation of his homeland of
Timor-Leste.”
Dr Ramos-Horta put the struggle of the East Timorese people before the
international community so that their plea for independence could not be
ignored. He lobbied the UN Security Council, the Fourth Committee of the
UN General Assembly, the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, the UN
Commission on Human Rights, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the
European Parliament.
In 1996 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour he shared with fellow
countryman, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for his “sustained efforts to
hinder the oppression of a small people”.
In 2001 he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at VU, an honorary
position conferred on those who have achieved national or international
eminence in their field.
HONORARY DEGREE
“The University has a strong interest in Timor-Leste and the Asia-Pacific region,
where VU supports international and local projects in community development
and the development of both vocational and higher education,” Professor
Harman said. “This is especially the case in Timor-Leste with VU having
completed a significant number of projects in vocational and higher education
that continue to make a real difference in the ability of the nation to build its
skills and capacities.”
Through the University’s East Timor Scholarship Fund, VU hopes to continue
to support the development of Timor-Leste’s intellectual infrastructure. The
Scholarship focuses on maximising educational opportunities for Timor-Leste
students, particularly those that will make an immediate and significant
contribution to the development of their newly independent nation.
To draw attention to the University’s efforts to raise money for the Fund, VU
sponsored the opening night of the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival
where ‘Balibo’, a film about five Australian journalists who were executed
following the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, had its world premiere.
Dr Ramos-Horta was special guest at the event.
Dr Ramos-Horta became foreign minister of East Timor following independence
in 2002, having previously been a spokesman in exile for the East Timorese
resistance during the years of Indonesian occupation between 1975 and 1999.
In May 2007 he was elected president, garnering nearly 70 per cent of the
vote. The following year he was seriously injured following an assassination
attempt by rebels outside his home in Dili.
Contributions to Victoria University’s East Timor Scholarship Fund can be made by
contacting the VU Foundation on 03 9919 1014.
STAFF WRITERS
31
 ‘IN REZ’
STUDENT LIFE
When a university student chooses to live away from
home, it is usually their first step towards independence
away from their family. It is an adventure, even if it
sometimes causes a little anxiety.
Finding a place that is comfortable, convenient, safe and
affordable – and then hoping to make friends and have
fun there – can be tough.
That’s why Victoria University is committed to offering
its students a range of accommodation that meets all
those criteria, and most importantly, becomes a true
home away from home.
Student Village in Maribyrnong perhaps most closely fits
the typical image associated with student life ‘in rez’.
With a unique history that included being a migrant
hostel, Student Village may seem a little austere at
first glance.
But student residents say nothing is further from
the truth. Set amid nine acres of parkland, but only
a few minutes walk to one of Melbourne’s biggest
shopping centres, the Village today is home to some
400 students from more than 50 countries, as well
as from regional Victoria and interstate. It welcomes
tertiary students studying at any institution, although VU
students get preference.
Thousands of university students over the years have
enjoyed its strong sense of community and connection,
and they usually refer to it as one of the best parts of
their student experience.
32
Teams of student leaders or ‘rez life co-ordinators’ are appointed to show
newcomers the ropes, providing advice about university life and organising social
and sporting events that help them get involved.
Naomi Keesen, 19, a second-year Bachelor of Business student from Dubbo, New
South Wales, is an academic adviser on the support team, helping students with
their studies and referring them to the best resources.
“This is an opportunity to help residents achieve the right balance between study,
work and fun,” she says.
The Village is divided and colour-coded into six individual colleges named after
features of Australia’s history. There are sports fields for weekly competitions
of volleyball, soccer, netball or touch footy; common rooms for social events
such as trivia and film nights; and BBQ areas for each college that residents can
personalise with their own landscaping and design.
Charlotte Porter, 19, is from Geelong, only an hour down the freeway. But the
second-year Creative Arts Industries student decided to live in the Village as a
way to “come out of her shell”.
“I now have so many friends from all over the world that I hardly have any time
to myself,” she says. “I like to show people who are just like me that they can
have fun and acquire social skills very quickly.”
A few kilometres away in Footscray is Victoria Place, the most recent addition
to VU’s student residences. Opened in early 2009, the $6 million three-story
building contains 41 stylish apartments, each fully-furnished and self-contained.
Less than five-minutes walk from the University’s Footscray Park Campus, its
residents have easy access to campus facilities, including the Aquatic and Fitness
Centre, main library and cafeterias.
Victoria Place filled quickly when it opened, with a large contingent of
international students from around the world, including Canada, France,
Germany, India, New Zealand, Sweden and Italy.
While VU’s Student Village has its history of welcoming newcomers, and Victoria
Place has a funky, inner-city vibe, the University’s third residence, Sunbury Hall,
sits high upon a hill overlooking the Melbourne skyline at VU’s Sunbury Campus.
Dating from the 1860s when it was the site of the old Sunbury Asylum, the
Campus today includes several heritage-listed buildings. Its 120-bed residential
building was originally the nurses’ quarters. The building was extensively
refurbished in 2005, and now houses students who mainly study at the Sunbury
and St Albans Campuses.
Christopher Plunkett, manager of VU’s student operations, says the University is
currently exploring future accommodation options for its students.
“We know that accommodation is an integral part of the student experience,”
says. “We aim to create a living and learning environment to foster academic
achievement.”
For more information about Victoria University’s accommodation facilities, visit:
www.vu.edu.au/residences or phone the University’s Residences Admissions
Officer on 03 9304 6307.
PHOTO: Victoria Place, opposite Footscray Park Campus, contains
41 fully-furnished, self-contained student apartments.
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
33

Associate Professor Michele Grossman says by linking diverse communities, a bushfire museum
could become a vital means of promoting enhanced cultural resilience of future generations.
Image courtesy Angela Wylie/fairfaxphotos
There is a subtle and important relationship between shared crisis, trauma
and cultural resilience, says VU academic Michele Grossman.
The destructive fires of Black Saturday are now past, but they remain very much
alive and present for those who continue to experience and deal with the traumas
they initiated for individuals, families, communities and services on the ground.
They also have important lessons to teach us for the future.
TRAUMA AND CRISIS
One proposal addressing this is the idea for a Victorian bushfire museum and
research centre. As Gary Tippet wrote recently in The Sunday Age (12 April 2009):
‘If Victoria is to have a memorial to the 173 people who died on Black Saturday
– and the hundreds killed in other bushfires – we need to let the experience of
OPINION past fires guide us to an understanding for the future in concrete terms. Why not a
bushfire museum and centre for bushfire research?’
A museum and research centre could make a contribution to cultural resilience
– through linking diverse communities across the state, the nation and
internationally, in a greater understanding and appreciation of how a series of
34
major bushfires that survive in living memory have influenced and affected our
sense of who we are, and of our capacities and our limitations.
It could promote discussion and debate about how such events will be
remembered, and it could record and preserve for the future, the many different
voices and forms of cultural capital.
Narrative and storytelling are basic to virtually every culture in all places
and periods. They are the building blocks for sustaining and transmitting
cultural memory and knowledge, and they preserve and sometimes revise an
understanding of the past, helping us to better negotiate the future.
The three major Victorian bushfires of 1939, 1983 and 2009 took place in three
different historical and cultural moments of Australian life. An analysis of what
has changed and what has endured across these events could tell us a great deal
about how we are travelling as a dynamic society, and how we might harness such
knowledge for the future.
If an important feature of cultural resilience is the capacity to look back as well
as ahead – and across cultures as well as within them – in thinking about how
to meet the future, then such a centre could become a vital means of promoting
enhanced cultural resilience for future generations.
The importance of allowing people to tell their stories, to serve as witnesses
to their own and other’s experiences through story and testimony, is well
documented in research on cultural trauma and healing. We are also starting to
understand how important it is that those stories not only be told, but are heard
and preserved, rather than treated as incidental or as an expression of trauma that
can be hurried away once we have all ‘got back to normal’.
Add to this the real opportunity to mobilise the wide array of culturally diverse
communities in Victoria to gather information, resources and data on cross-cultural
responses to and understandings of bushfires and fire emergencies. This would
better inform policy and preparedness for future crises and disasters, and we
can begin to see how powerful such an inclusive response to a pressing set of
environmental and social challenges might be.
If we fail to heed the knowledge, social capital and cultural reference points that
people from many different backgrounds can bring to all aspects of how we deal
with crisis, trauma and emergency, we lose the opportunity to know ourselves
fully. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we can afford to forgo
or ignore such knowledge and the protective factors it can offer for a model of
sustainable cross-cultural resilience.
Cultural resilience is only as strong as its ability to be transmitted and reinforced
across languages, cultures and generations. This resilience depends on our ability
to remember, and on how well we share our emotions and our memories, so that
future generations can benefit from our experience.
Associate Professor Michele
Grossman is Associate Dean
(Research and Research Training)
in VU’s Faculty of Arts, Education
and Human Development, and
Associate Professor in the School
of Communication and the Arts.
She is also a Senior Research
Associate with VU’s Institute for
Community, Ethnicity and Policy
Alternatives (ICEPA).
35

LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE AND COMMUNITY
From 2010, it will be mandatory for nearly every course undertaken at Victoria
University to offer 25 per cent assessment in Learning in the Workplace and
Community (LiWC).
LiWC can take many forms. It could be a job placement, working in a simulated
environment, such as one of VU’s Health Sciences Teaching Clinics, or
volunteering overseas.
However the LiWC component is made up, VU’s commitment to future students is
that LiWC assessment will make up 25 per cent of a student’s final grade.
LiWC is an integral part of Making VU, the University’s action plan for achieving
a distinctive and sustainable future. It aims to deepen students’ practical
knowledge of the workplace and community, and further develop their
employability and generic skills.
Christiana Grdovic, currently studying the Diploma of Specialised Make Up at
City King Campus, says LiWC makes students realise how things really are.
“How we are taught in the classroom isn’t always what takes place out in the
workplace,” she says.
So far, Grdovic has done around half of the 80 hours of industry placement she
needs to do to complete her course. She says the opportunity to get industry
placement credits for her portfolio was one of the Diploma’s major attractions.
Gina Hurley, LiWC Project Officer, says the new initiative is not only a great
opportunity for students, but also for educators and employers.
36
“We want educators to be dynamic in how they approach LiWC,” says Hurley.
“The University has exceptional links with industry, and LiWC is a chance to
build on these ties.
“With LiWC, employers and community organisations can engage students with
projects that their permanent staff don’t have the capacity to take on, while
students benefit from a wealth of real-world experience.”
First-year Bachelor of Science student Donna Watson says a four-week
placement with the Department of Primary Industries in Werribee gave her the
chance to put classroom theory into practice.
“I worked on a research program looking at the right time to pick tomatoes for
optimum nutritional benefit,” says Watson. “My research was acknowledged in
a conference poster, which was just incredible.”
For Amanda Valastro, a second-year paramedic student, LiWC gave her
increased confidence and the ability to see life from a new perspective, which
she developed from volunteer work at a hospital in Uganda.
“I gained a range of experiences on various wards and in the operating
theatre,” says Valastro. “I also worked in a maternity clinic with expectant and
new mothers and their babies.
“The whole process was very character building and gave me training I never
imagined I would get. Obtaining clinical practice experience overseas was
invaluable because paramedics can work anywhere in the world.”
For more information and student testimonials about the benefits of LiWC visit
www.vu.edu.au/future-students/reasons-to-study-at-vu/student-work
PHOTO: Paramedic student Amanda Valastro did a LiWC placement as a
volunteer at a hospital in Uganda.
CRAIG SCUTT
Kesego Elizabeth Poomore is proof that the world
is indeed a small place. The 21 year old from
Botswana, who is currently studying in Malaysia,
flew to Melbourne in mid July as the lucky raffle
winner of a Victoria University-sponsored tour.
For Kesego – whose name means ‘blessed’
in English – the three-day trip, courtesy of VU
International, is testament that her name is working
its miracles.
During a hectic few days in Melbourne in July,
Kesego went sightseeing, took her first tram ride,
tasted Australian cuisine, had a cup of tea with
Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Harman, and watched a
Western Bulldogs game with VU and AFL executives.
“From a young age I wanted to explore the world
and go for opportunities when presented with them,”
says Kesego, now in her second year of a Bachelor
of Business twinning program with VU at Sunway
University College, specialising in Marketing and
International Trade.
Although based in Kuala Lumpur, she says she can feel
the Aussie spirit in her studies, through the Australian
teachers, resources and curriculum.
Kesego Elizabeth Poomore; the lucky raffle winner of a Victoria
University-sponsored tour.
experience
The ties between VU and Sunway are close and
go back more than a decade. In a true example
of transnational education, Bachelor of Business
students may transfer between either university at
any time because the programs are identical in both
countries.
“My course offers a unique module of professional
development which opened my eyes about what
employees expect, and how to compete in a world
when global competition is very high,” says Kesego.
Kesego was sponsored by her government to study
abroad, and is the first in her family to leave her
small hometown of Serowe in central Botswana to
go to university.
As a way of giving back to her people, she hopes
to return one day to Botswana with a business plan
that will provide employment for young people in her
community.
Her international experience, education and networks
will undoubtedly be put to good use as part of that.
With multilingual skills that include Mandarin, English
and several African languages – as well as her
INTERNATIONAL
multicultural education and experiences – Kesego is
the new face of the international student experience.
As part of its commitment to enhance the
international student experience, VU is now
collaborating with eight other universities across
North America, Europe and Asia to give students
unique opportunities to undertake a foreign work
placement during their studies.
The International Workplace Student Exchange
(Co-op) Pilot Program, an initiative of the World
Association of Co-operative Education, is expected to
begin later this year.
Professor Harman met Kesego during her visit to
Melbourne, which coincidentally took place only days
after the vice-chancellor’s own overseas trip.
“During my time in China, Mexico and North
America, a constant conversation topic was how
global institutions can best give students a truly
international experience,” says Professor Harman.
“Kesego is a wonderful example of the possibilities
for VU students to experience life elsewhere, no
matter where in the world they are enrolled.”
ANN MARIE ANGEBRANDT
37
 SKILLS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
BOOKS
Understanding Problem Gambling
By Jennifer Borrell
Legal & Justice Studies Workbook
By Scott Beattie
Published by VDM Verlag (Germany) Published by Federation Press
Many things grow in a garden that were never sown there The program also consolidates their literacy, numeracy, personal development
– Thomas Fuller, 1732. and social skills in a workplace setting. This book proposes an integrative framework This practical, skills-based book is packed
to assist in understanding social phenomena with information, strategies and tips on
Who could have known that a vacant, degraded piece of land next to a railway School of General Education Programs and Services teacher Majella Grainger in general and problematic gambling in legal and justice studies. It explains how to
line could change so many lives? says that apart from the program’s tangible benefits, the Community Garden particular. Drawing on a range of theorists research law and justice and how to examine
helps promote student self confidence, many of whom come from from physics, biology and social theory, them within their wider contexts. Readers
In late 2006, Victoria University allocated a parcel of land the size of a house
disadvantaged backgrounds. and following a critique of positivist trends will learn a wide range of research skills as
block to a unique adult education program that provides training for horticulture
students enrolled in VU’s Certificate in General Education for Adults. “It’s not a program where you’re here for twelve weeks and then you leave,” that have been dominant in the gambling well as skills in essay and report writing.
says Grainger. “Some students have been here for several years. For some research literature, a holistic, process-based
Known as the VU Community Garden, it is used by disadvantaged students
it’s a long process to be able to achieve the level of ability to meet workplace approach is presented.
to consolidate general work skills and expand their options for further
requirements on the outside. These students are on a journey.”
education and employment. Their training is centred on developing and
maintaining a commercially viable vegetable garden, and selling the produce The simulated work environment of the garden re-enforces real workplace Practice Skills in Social Work & Welfare Sports in Society: Issues & Controversies
to the local community. practices such as wearing a uniform, signing a time sheet, and following By Jane Maidment and Ronnie Egan (VU) in Australia & New Zealand
occupational health and safety regulations. Published by Allen & Unwin By Jay Coakley, Chris Hallinan,
Seasonal produce ranges from lettuce, silver beet, radishes and rhubarb to
A critical examination providing insight into Steve Jackson, Peter Mewett
spinach, parsley tomatoes and coriander. Several times a year, the students run a market stall. They take the harvested
topic areas such as engagement, assessment, Published by McGraw Hill Education
produce, weigh it, calculate the sale price, tally and record the crop details, and
Students plan, construct and maintain garden beds, maintain soil nutrients, intervention and evaluation. It stresses the Sports in Society is the definitive text for
sell it. Income generated by the market sales are returned to the garden to
grow and harvest produce, and prepare the harvest for market. They also learn skills needed for working with individual studies in sport sociology. Taking a global,
contribute to the site’s operating costs.
about environmentally-sustainable gardening practices such as being water- clients, families and community groups. It issues-oriented approach to the study of the
wise, crop rotation, garden-waste recycling and worm farming. Grainger’s vision for the garden is for it to become an educational precinct open also explores the dilemmas faced in daily role of sport in society, this text encourages
to the public to showcase the sustainable production of fruits, vegetables and practice, including involuntary clients, the discussion of current sports-related
Students develop valuable job skills such as planning, communication,
bush food. adapting to different social contexts and controversies and helps the reader develop
teamwork, design, problem-solving and information technology.
Over the next two years an indigenous food garden will be developed crisis situations. critical thinking skills.
adjacent to the existing site. It will connect various VU student groups
with Indigenous Australians and showcase the production of Australian Stawell Gift Almanac: Swimming
native food plants, such as yam daisy, large kangaroo apple and native History of the Stawell Gift By Enza Gandolfo
raspberry, in an educational setting. By Gary Watt Published by Vanark Press ($29.95)
Published by Legacy Books Set in Melbourne’s western suburbs,
In 2008 the VU Community Garden team received a VC’s citation for
innovative programs that enhance learning. This is the first book to comprehensively Swimming is the lyrical story of one
cover the first 127 years of Australia’s oldest woman’s journey. It is about female
YANNICK THORAVAL and most famous professional footrace. It friendship, artistic creativity and unexpected
includes a collection of Gift statistics, stories, childlessness. It explores the fragility of
and legends both past and present. Past Gift personal relationships and will resonate
winners have praised the book as a long with anyone whose life hasn’t turned out as
anticipated record of a sporting icon. planned. Launched by Helen Garner at the
2009 Melbourne Writers Festival.

VU FACTS
HISTORY CAMPUSES AND SITES FACULTIES GENERAL ENQUIRIES ALUMNI RELATIONS
Founded in 1916 as Footscray City Flinders Arts, Education and Human PHONE +61 3 9919 4000 PHONE +61 3 9919 1017
Technical School and established City King Development EMAIL alumni@vu.edu.au
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT
as Victoria University in 1990 City Queen (site) www.vu.edu.au/alumni
Business and Law ENQUIRIES
Footscray Nicholson
STUDENT POPULATION Victoria University International POSTAL ADDRESS
Footscray Park Health, Engineering and Science
Current student population: Victoria University
Newport PHONE +61 3 9919 1164
47,034 enrolled students Technical and Trades Innovation PO Box 14428
Melton
International students: EMAIL international@vu.edu.au Melbourne VIC 8001
St Albans Workforce Development
VU’s Community Garden in Footscray is used by disadvantaged students 10,505 enrolled students
Sunbury www.vu.edu.au
to consolidate general work skills and expand their education options. Postgraduate students: and VU College
Sunshine
3919 enrolled students
Werribee
38 39
 ART

ARTIST/STUDENT: Minh Phan

COURSE: Diploma of Visual Art (2nd year)
TITLE: Covered
DATE: 2009
MEDIA: Mixed media on paper

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