Prof Duncan Bentley Fed Uni / Rob Munro 20 yrs service 23 Mch 2023 Gallery

It was great to present Rob Munro with a certificate to acknowledge his 20 years of service to the Club (not forgetting his service to Rotary in Horsham).

Our guest speaker last week was Professor Duncan Bentley, Vice Chancellor of Federation University. As Vice Chancellor, Duncan is the CEO of the University. Duncan provided club members with a very clear and focused presentation in which he outlined the key elements of the University's strategic plan (Transform Lives, Enhance Communities and creation of a Strong, Sustainable University). These strategic foci were also shown to align with the University's values charter which centres around inclusion, innovation, excellence, empowerment and collaboration. Duncan provided a detailed outline of Fed Uni's campus master plan; especially as it relates to its Ballarat campuses. He detailed the need to consolidate its campus footprint and provided briefed us on the planned upgrade of the School of Mines campus in Lydiard Street. Duncan also outlined the plans for the future use of the Mt. Helen campus as the centre piece of his goal for Fed Uni to become Australia's first Co-op University where students are deeply embedded in industry and the community. This will involve a dramatic increase in the number and scale of industry and community organisations sharing the Mt. Helen campus. Finally, Duncan addressed the 'wicked' problem where rural and regional living Australians occupy the lower tier of educational opportunity and attainment. In particular he highlighted that Australians growing up in regional areas are 40% less likely to gain tertiary education. He presented some compelling data to illustrate the negative impact the lower regional tertiary education levels are having on regional community economies and their overall sustainability. Duncan closed by emphasizing the role of Fed Uni in redressing this imbalance and in doing so, contribute in a significant way to the growth and well being of regional Australia.