La Trobe University and the City of Greater Bendigo have committed to a new five-year plan to progress higher education in Bendigo and elsewhere in regional Victoria.
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University vice-chancellor John Dewar and the council’s chief executive officer Craig Niemann signed the new memorandum of understanding on Monday, replacing a previous agreement that expired at the end of last year.
Professor Dewar said in addition to promoting higher education in Bendigo, the agreement would see the university continue its push to encourage the federal government to fund the Murray Darling Medical School, backed by the city.
“We think that together with the new hospital that the opening of a medical school for regional students, preparing them for regional practice, could be quite transformative of the way Bendigo is perceived and the attractiveness of the city as a destination,” he said.
“We know that we’re right about this being the right solution to the shortage of rural doctors, we know that the current system is failing, it is not producing enough doctors who want to work in regional areas.”
Mr Niemann said the city supported the push.
“We’ll keep pushing our federal government counterparts and the people that are involved in federal government to make sure that they know clearly what the Murray Darling Medical School is about,” he said.
“We’re going to have one of the best regional hospitals in Australia built in Bendigo so we’ve got to make sure that’s got a great offering of medical teaching as well.”
The memorandum of understanding will also see La Trobe students gaining work experience with the City of Greater Bendigo and other local organisations.
“We’ve been talking to the Bendigo Manufacturing Group about the potential for our engineering students to spend time gaining work experience in their organisations,” Professor Dewar said.
The Australian Medical Students’ Association has opposed the idea of establishing the medical school in Bendigo, believing more funds need to be put towards specialty training to keep young doctors in rural areas.
The association says Monash and Melbourne universities already run a successful program in Bendigo and another school would not increase the number of rural doctors.
Federally-funded specialty colleges run the training, rather than universities.
