INSTALLATION OF RICHARD LARKINS AS 7TH CHANCELLOR OF LA TROBE UNIVERSITY Thursday 27th April 2017 Professor Richard Larkins AO, Chancellor of La Trobe University Professor Keith Nugent, Acting Vice Chancellor of La Trobe University Ms Maree Edwards MP, State Member for Bendigo West Chancellors of Victorian Universities, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathering and paying my respects to their elders past and present, and to any elders with us today. I am delighted to be with you this morning to install Professor Richard Larkins AO as the seventh Chancellor of La Trobe University. Last December it was my privilege to deliver the Richard Larkins Oration at Monash University, where Professor Larkins served with such distinction as Vice-Chancellor. On that occasion I chose as my subject the uplifting power of great speeches. I hope I haven’t inadvertently raised expectations for my remarks this morning. I also hope that Professor Larkins won’t think I’m hounding him from lectern to lectern wherever he goes. That is not my intent. In fact, the honour of installing him as Chancellor falls to me as what is known as the Visitor to the university. The title ‘Visitor’ is a very old one, and though its origins 1 are somewhat obscure today, it is a happy aspect of the role that I am able to participate this morning in an event to which I feel a personal connection. CHARLES LA TROBE’S VALUES & EXAMPLE First, there is the significant link, through the office of Governor, to this University’s namesake, Charles La Trobe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Victoria. La Trobe was a mountaineer, a writer, artist, botanist and geologist. A sensitive and cultured person. He was also assigned the massive task of building a modern society from scratch. Despite the get-rich-quick ethos of the era in which he served, Governor La Trobe remained a steadfast advocate of justice, civility and community cohesion. He oversaw the establishment of many of Victoria’s most treasured institutions, including the Melbourne Hospital, the State Library and Art Gallery, the Botanic Gardens, and the University of Melbourne. It was quite a workload, but whenever the Lieutenant-Governor felt besieged by the pressures of administration, he would head out into the bush to visit the outlying settlements and sheep stations of his bailiwick. There too, he set a daunting precedent, making 94 major tours of country Victoria, including a number to Bendigo. Later, Governors on tour would enjoy the comforts of a vice-regal train (although today, I came here by car: the carriage having been retired, I’m a little sorry to say, in the 1980s). Governor La Trobe, however, travelled by horseback, spending long days in the saddle, sketching the landscape and camping under the strange and brilliant stars of the southern sky. He would surely be delighted to know that Victoria’s third university bears his name, and that it has established such a vibrant campus here, in a place he knew fondly as a rough and unsophisticated settlement. (The ‘Bendigo Effect’ had not yet kicked in). 2 Most of all, he would be honoured to see how the ideals that he cherished have endured in La Trobe University. 50 YEARS OF LA TROBE UNIVERSITY This University was founded with a boldly idealistic and forward-looking spirit. In his inaugural address, Vice Chancellor David Myers spoke about the university’s future contribution to human progress. He imagined La Trobe academics greening the world’s deserts with new desalination technology, perhaps powered by innovative methods of tapping and storing solar energy. Today, at the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre at Albury-Wodonga and Mildura, La Trobe researchers pursue that vision of securing environmentally sustainable food and fresh water supplies into the future. In fifty years, this University has certainly known great successes. I realise that in a room full of competitive scholars, a Visitor singles out examples of academic excellence at her peril. So let me turn to a universal aspect of this university’s excellence, and one dear to my own heart: that is, inclusion and opportunity. And that brings me to the second reason that I am so pleased to be with you today. THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGHER ED IN REGIONAL AREAS It gives me a chance to celebrate La Trobe’s leading contribution to higher education in our regional areas. 3 One of the great privileges of being Governor is the opportunity to meet so many Victorians in so many different parts of our state. For me, one of the great lessons has been seeing first-hand how access to high-quality education can transform the lives of young people, particularly those in disadvantaged circumstances. And those far from city centres. Thanks largely to its regional enrolment, La Trobe has a strikingly diverse student population. In Shepparton, many La Trobe students come from non-English speaking, Indigenous or refugee backgrounds. More than 70 per cent of La Trobe’s Mildura students are the first in their family to attend university. Behind these dry statistics are real lives - lives permanently transformed by the chance to study on a local campus supported by family and social networks, and real communities revitalised by the benefits of higher education. Research shows that in areas with lower levels of educational attainment, work is generally lower-skilled and lower-paid. Jobs are harder to find. People suffer poorer health. In Melbourne, more than 30 per cent of 20 to 29-year-olds hold a degree. In country areas, that figure is much lower: 20 per cent here in Bendigo, around 15 per cent in Shepparton, Wodonga and Mildura. That is why it is so pleasing to know that so many of La Trobe’s regional students choose to remain in their communities after they have graduated. Almost three-quarters of La Trobe’s regional graduates in health-related fields will live and work in regional areas, caring for their fellow Victorians. 4 Other regional graduates will care for country in Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management. They will teach children. They will tackle local challenges in social services, agriculture and the arts. They will enrich their communities and live fulfilling lives in the places that they love. I think of someone like Penny Davies, Bendigo’s 2015 Citizen of the Year. She took her first, tentative step into higher education in 1976, at what was then the Bendigo Institute of Technology, as a mum in her mid-30s. Forty years later, she completed a doctorate in history at La Trobe. This year, Dr Davies has contributed a fascinating chapter on the University’s regional history in the first volume published by La Trobe’s new university press. CONCLUSION & PROFESSOR LARKINS La Trobe’s new Chancellor is also someone who has devoted his career to community service. Professor Larkins is a man for all seasons. Like Charles La Trobe, he has extraordinarily broad interests – though he holds, by my count, five more degrees – and apparently limitless energy. Not content with a stellar career in clinical medicine, research and academic administration, he has also held numerous leadership positions, including as the Chair of Universities Australia. He understands the tertiary landscape, and he understands the specific needs of this university. As Dean of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, he was instrumental in establishing the Rural Clinical School in Shepparton, so he understands the importance of quality regional education. No one appreciates more keenly than Professor Larkins the role higher education will play in the future peace and prosperity of all Victorians. 5 I wish him every success as he leads this great university into its next 50 years. I now invite Professor Richard Larkins to step forward. Professor Larkins, on behalf of the Council and members of La Trobe University, I formally admit you to the position of Chancellor of La Trobe University. It gives me great pleasure to present you with this parchment in commemoration of this installation ceremony. 6 .