La Trobe University’s largest regional campus will swing open its doors to the entire community this Sunday for the highly anticipated annual Bendigo Open Day.
The La Trobe Open Day, on Sunday 25 August, will offer an immersive experience for prospective students and their families to discover all aspects of student and campus life.
Potential and future undergraduate and postgraduate students will have the opportunity to attend course presentations, meet academics and current students, go on campus tours, explore accommodation options and network with alumni. Ultimately, they’ll see why La Trobe is ranked number one in Victoria by employers.
Bendigo Head of Campus Marg O’Rourke said Open Day goes beyond school leavers and is for anyone interested in exploring the impact of higher education.
“School leavers, people wanting to change careers, retrain or re-enter the workforce can find out about pathways, subject areas of interest and our industry-leading education, health and engineering courses,” Marg said.
“More than 35 per cent of our students in Bendigo are the first in their family to attend university, others are entering as mature-age students and together they understand the opportunities of studying in a regional area.”
La Trobe is investing $42 million to redevelop the dentistry, nursing and allied health labs at Bendigo into state-of-the-art facilities. Combined with the University’s strong ties to industry and local organisations, students build the experience needed to meet the regional skills shortage and be equipped for jobs of the future.
Bendigo is home to 400 staff and more than 4000 domestic and online students, including about 400 international students. The University is committed to supporting diversity in the community and harbouring life-long connections.
It would be fair to say that Enoch Soloman is joined to La Trobe at the hip – despite graduating with a Bachelor of Information Technology earlier this year.
The Bendigo alum, who started studying as COVID hit, frequently visits the Flora Hill campus to catch up with current students and former teaching staff, helps run student-led events and even spends his lunch breaks from work supporting the new international students.
“I can’t pull myself away from La Trobe and I don’t want to. I keep finding ways to come back,” Enoch said.
“I still try to engage myself with La Trobe from a career perspective and I’m currently working in a professional capacity with the IT Department on a cardiovascular disease project.
“My Industry Based Learning placement with Bendigo Telco was my favourite aspect of the course and a stepping stone into my career that I wouldn’t have got elsewhere. At the end of my placement, I was offered a full-time role as a CX Platform Specialist and that’s what I do outside of La Trobe.”
The Bendigo Open Day will be held between 9am and 2pm.
