School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport Statement of Strategic Intent

We will leverage La Trobe’s cultural values – accountable, connected, innovative and caring – to drive the way we work with each other, our students and our partners to become known as an outstanding school to pursue an academic career, receive an education, conduct research, or to collaborate.

We will continue to champion a workplace that is safe, inclusive and supports the health and wellbeing of our staff. We will promote equity, diversity and inclusion. The University’s cultural qualities will underpin everything we do.

We will focus on embedding a culture that creates high-performing teams where people can excel, learn, grow and have a rewarding career. We will leverage this positive culture to ensure staff have access to regular conversations about their performance and career development in order to build capacity and high-performing teams.

We will support strategies for the recruitment, retention and career development of Indigenous employees.

We will continue to champion a culture of shared practice that encourages innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration in teaching and research.

We will recognise and celebrate the achievements of our staff and students, and co-partner with them to create a culture of excellence. We will engage so that our stakeholders are informed, and staff and students have professional visibility within and external to the School, leveraging our LinkedIn channel.

We will focus our efforts on driving innovation in our curriculum to improve the learning experience for our students in every aspect of their education and enhancing the employability outcomes for our graduates.

Curriculum innovation

We will be known as a market leader in allied health education and a leading specialist in all of our disciplines. Through a focus on continual curriculum innovation, our course portfolio will reflect future workforce needs and meet industry accreditation standards to ensure our graduates are eligible for registration to practice.

We will embed Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into our courses through embedding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework, employ First Nations allied health professionals, and provide our graduates with the knowledge and skills to work with diverse communities.

We will provide our students with an education that equips them to become critical thinkers and innovative problem solvers, develop transferable leadership skills, are digitally literate and ready to use contemporary technologies such as telehealth in the delivery of health services, and are culturally aware to ensure they can improve health outcomes for the communities they serve.

Student experience

We will adopt the principles of relationship-rich education to foster relationships and connection between students, between students and academic staff, and between students and their profession, as the foundations for student learning, belonging and academic success.

We will support our clinical educator workforce who supervise and support our students on clinical placement to provide a better student experience by providing them with professional development courses to enhance their skills in clinical supervision, training and student engagement.

We will enhance our own student-led clinics to optimise the delivery of student clinical placement training and accommodate specialist sub-discipline placement requirements for students training with specific population groups.

We will improve our facilities to ensure we offer graduates a contemporary student experience and opportunities for skills development in emerging technologies, including telehealth delivery and innovative healthcare practice.

We will embed research pathways into our courses and support students to explore graduate research options.

Employability outcomes

We will achieve high graduate employability and supply the allied health professions, particularly in Victoria, with a pipeline of skilled professionals and clinicians.

We will collaborate closely with our partners to achieve best-practice in work-based education, ensuring our approach is augmented by sustained, hands-on learning in clinical, community, industry and private practice settings, and in the use of telehealth where appropriate.

We will collaborate with our partners to become a market leader in specialist postgraduate, continuing professional development and higher degree opportunities for the allied health workforce – particularly for those involved in the clinical education of our students.

We will engage with our alumni to build connections to, and affiliations with the School, and provide them with opportunities to engage in lifelong learning.

We will focus our efforts on building our research capability and industry engagement in order to conduct innovative research across all of our disciplines and deliver translational, evidence-based research outcomes that support improved professional practice and innovation in health and wellbeing outcomes for individuals and communities.

Research capability development

Our research centres – the La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, the Living with Disability Research Centre, and the Centre for Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation – will be supported by the School to continue their leading role in our research success and impact. We will develop a pipeline of talented researchers in order to support the future research leadership needs of research centres and the schools.

We will support the development of our researchers, at all career stages, through mentoring and training programs, dedicated financial support for early career researchers and Higher Degree by Research students, and fostering research collaborations that align with our areas of strength and expertise.

We will deliver high quality research training and skills development to health professionals working within our partner healthcare providers via our Step into Research program, our Higher Degree by Research students and supervisors of these students.

We will enhance the intellectual climate for researchers by supporting school wide research seminars, public orations and lectures by leading researchers, and greater dissemination of the impact of our research outcomes via our website and LinkedIn social medial channels.

Industry engagement

We will drive industry engagement through the development of discipline specific research capability statements, targeted partnership management via our Academic and Research Collaborative in Health appointments to increase funding through the Medical Research Future Fund, National Health and Medical Research Council and industry funding opportunities, and leverage our growing partnerships in the sport industry.

We will increase philanthropic support for research by developing a prospectus with the Alumni and Advancement Office, hosting dedicated engagement events, and raising the profile of our research impact via our program of public orations and lectures.

Our contribution will align with La Trobe University’s research themes: Sustainable food and agriculture; Resilient environments and communities; Healthy people, families and communities; Understanding and preventing disease; and Social change and equity.