Proud to be changing the face of education

Victoria University today launched a $35 million campaign to build a fund to provide a broad range of support to students and invest in projects that strengthen local communities.

Our Changing the Face of Education campaign will help build Australia’s future prosperity by helping young Australians succeed in education and training, and lift the communities from which those young people come.

For its first-ever philanthropic campaign VU will focus on 4 main projects: Creating Opportunity, Building a Healthy West, Mitchell Institute and Sunshine Skills Hub.

Creating Opportunity Fund

The Creating Opportunity Fund is an endowment aimed at financially supporting every student who needs it, build student enrichment programs, and enhance the student experience. It will:

• build VU’s Student Support Fund to assist students at risk of leaving university due to an unforeseen financial crisis
• enhance VU’s scholarship program by providing targeted scholarships such as the Asylum Seeker and Success Scholarships
• expand VU’s student experience program to maximise opportunities for students to learn from studying abroad and other real-world activities.

Building a Health West

Building a Healthy West programs use evidence and data to highlight regional health issues such as diabetes, and provide an integrated, collective approach to work with the community to solve them. Programs areas are:

• Growing Brimbank – a collaborative project integrating services and social systems with local community
• Western Melbourne Diabetes Alliance – addressing the challenges of diabetes and improving care coordination
• Institute of Sport Exercise and Active Living – investigating ways to increase participation, access, and facilities in sport and active living. 

Mitchell Institute

Mitchell Institute, established five years ago with the support Harold Mitchell, is undertaking influential policy research on the education system from early childhood to postgraduate studies. Ares of focus include:

• increasing early learning opportunities;
• redefining schooling for the 21^st century;
• transforming vocational and higher education through analysis, modelling and research.

Sunshine Skills Hub

Sunshine Skills Hub, supported by the Ian Potter Foundation and the State Government, offers courses in construction technologies, advanced manufacturing and health technologies, together with health and community services, and language, literacy and numeracy programs. The Sunshine Skills Hub:

• provide custom-designed programs for today’s workforce
• offer future-oriented vocational training in a region with high youth unemployment
• deliver targeted language, literacy and numeracy programs.

View Changing the Face of Education video.

Further information

In 2016, VU celebrated its 100^th year as an educational institution and the campaign will build on this legacy.

Former Western Bulldogs Vice President and philanthropist Susan Alberti, and Quest Apartment Hotels Chairman and VU graduate (then Footscray Institute of Technology) Paul Constantinou are leading the campaign as Chair and Deputy Chair of the VU Foundation.

Find out how to donate to VU.