An ambitious regional growth strategy has been unveiled by La Trobe, with an eye to building its credentials as an urban-regional hybrid poised to pick up a slice of the bounty on offer via needs-based funding when it commences under the re-installed Albanese Government.
Regional campuses were a safe bet to win favour and cash regardless of the election result and La Trobe have pulled out all the stops on the strategic ambition, while also recognising the space and demand constraints for pure face-to-face learning within the campus boundaries of its regional campuses.
The strategy sets a relatively modest target of just 200 additional EFTSL on campus by 2030, just 20% above current figures, but a 200% increase in online learners. The 2030 ‘targets’ are not what will have the marketing team reaching for their beta blockers, but rather the 2040 ‘aspirations’.
La Trobe is gunning for an 883% increase in online enrolments by regional students by 2040, along with a 193% increase in hybrid learners and a relatively simple 60% growth in on-campus students.
While the University aspires to grow from 4,100 EFTSL regional students in 2024 to 14,800 EFTSL in 2040, the growth in on-campus enrolments in 16 years is just 600 EFTSL – with the remaining 10,100 additional students to be blended or fully online.
How this works with the Federal Government’s needs-based funding formula, which was proposed to allocate funding to regional campuses than per regional student is yet to be seen, with almost 40% of the 2040 cohort fully online.
Clearly the Accord’s equity agenda is in focus, with the strategy noting that, ”This will enable us to reduce by a third the gap between metropolitan and regional participation in higher education.”
The Strategy offers a range of other less aggressive targets that will be win friends in regional centres – allowing campuses to be used for community activities, encouraging co-location of community organisations on campus, and raising funds for 1,000 scholarships. With thriving regional campuses in Bendigo, Shepparton, Wodonga and Mildura, the University will also win friends in Canberra by demonstrating practical alignment with the goals of the Accord.
