How La Trobe University is transforming the future of Higher Education

With more than 37,000 students and 3,000 staff members, plus seven city and regional campuses across Victoria and New South Wales, connecting their students, staff, research community and partners in industry and government is vital to La Trobe University.

With the advent of the pandemic, traditional investments in bricks and mortar infrastructure were no longer enough. While the university did manage to switch to online learning and research in a matter of days, they recognised that the quality of the experience varied widely. 

La Trobe knew that to deliver exceptional experiences for all their students, researchers, staff and industry partners, they would need a strong digital foundation. As a result, La Trobe is making the most significant investment in its 50-year history into technologies that will transform it into the University City of the Future.

In partnership with Optus, La Trobe University is building the University City of the Future, with an initial focus on enhancing their networks, contact centre and embracing cloud.

It is a bold and pivotal move designed to differentiate La Trobe and make it the destination of choice for domestic and international students, staff and industry partners, as well as driving cost-optimisation and service efficiencies across its IT functions. 

The strategy is being brought to life with Optus, a five-year partnership with the university and a curated selection of Optus partners, including Cisco for networks, Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud and NICE for contact centres.

The youngest of the three original universities in Victoria, La Trobe has a long history of breaking new ground. As a challenger telco, Optus and La Trobe have much in common culturally. This is reflected in a shared passion for innovation, with current areas of focus including digital health and wellbeing, preventative care, cybersecurity, Advanced Manufacturing, AgTech and the future of food – the latter being of keen interest to many of the 37,000 students across their campuses.

Optus is supporting the appointment of a new academic research chair in digital health with a cyber skill and awareness initiative to explore how technology can help transform health outcomes.

On a practical level, the partnership works both ways, with Optus providing scholarships, internships and placements for students. At the same time, La Trobe is a significant contributor to Optus University, helping re- and up-skill Optus staff by offering them the opportunity to gain credentials in such areas as UX, Data Analytics and cybersecurity. 

Working together, La Trobe and Optus have also been successful with several Commonwealth and Federal grants, including a cyber awareness initiative for SMBs, a key pillar of the Optus customer community.

Encouraging the university board and council to support a change in focus from physical spaces to digital capabilities was the first step in La Trobe's transformation journey, and the size of the investment reflects the strength of their support, particularly given that this began at a time when La Trobe were experiencing challenges due to the pandemic.

To do more and act faster with fewer resources, the University's IT staff, led by the Chief Operating Officer (COO) were under extraordinary pressure to operate with greater efficiency. Prioritising projects was critical to ensure swift results and build a strong foundation for the future.

"We deliberately went after low-hanging fruit – projects with the quickest time to impact." – Mark Smith, Chief Operating Officer, La Trobe Univeristy

The Optus partnership was vital as La Trobe could leverage lessons learned from Optus and Cisco's prior experiences. 

Four key pillars are driving La Trobe’s transformation, including:

1. Provide digitally enhanced teaching and learning, including micro-courses, digital credentials, personalised learning and lifelong learning opportunities.
2. Drive research excellence through partnerships and technology innovation.
3. Leverage digital technologies for operational excellence, including automation and improvement of existing processes.
4. Enhance agility through business-ready, scalable, and secure digital platforms and services.

Notably, the ongoing digital transformation of La Trobe is not just about back-of-house efficiencies but the quality of the experiences they can offer on and off campus. 

Part of the goal of the transformation project is to deliver the University of the Future and, in partnership, Optus and La Trobe are now exploring how these experiences can be amplified across both physical and digital spaces in a new hybrid world.

As an example, digital transformation is enhancing service delivery for those studying at La Trobe's regional campuses – providing students with access to subjects that were previously only available at metropolitan campuses. 

Where turning up in person at a lecture theatre was once the norm, today, La Trobe's students can learn in many different ways – at a time of their choice, in the mode of their choice, to suit what else is happening in their working and personal lives. 

In total, there are 45 programs running across six streams and the university is currently measuring 187 key benefits that tie into both the project strategy and La Trobe's overall strategy. 

This is just the beginning. 

Over the next decade, La Trobe University will evolve into a world-class University City of the Future at their 235-hectare Melbourne campus in Bundoora. The new infrastructure will turn their campus 'inside out' and welcome the local community onto the campus as a place to live, learn, work, socialise and stay healthy.

As part of this, a new Research and Innovation Precinct is being created, which includes two new Innovation Hubs that will connect businesses with research, students and infrastructure. 

To foster rapid and agile innovation, technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will underpin innovative new teaching methods, support campus-wide activation and power new models of research that will transform Australia's critical national industries. Underpinning this will be the partnership with Optus.

Optus also managed the transition of La Trobe’s Fixed Voice, Mobile, SMS and Student Accommodation WAN earlier this year. The partnership is now embarking on transitioning La Trobe to an Optus managed Mobility Service to support the university’s mobile fleet.

La Trobe now has a trusted end-to-end telecommunications and IT service provider and strategic partner who understands its business challenges, thinks proactively and works alongside them to achieve their key strategic goals, as well as cost savings to allow the La Trobe to focus on their core business and day-to-day operations.