VC Message for dKin times newsletter

Dear Deakin community,

It is important to bring our community even closer together during this challenging time. We are delighted to connect with you each month through our dKin Times newsletter and to share Deakin’s news, events, research and services with you. Our alumni have been receiving this for some time, and I would now like to welcome our donors, supporters and friends to our readership. Greater community connection and purpose will go a long way to maintaining shared optimism for better days ahead.

Deakin is a university built on ideas: we explore and challenge them, test and develop, and translate them into solutions that offer genuine progress for society. Our heart lies in education and the pursuit of knowledge, and through these core activities we aim to enhance the lives of individuals and communities.

The relationships with our alumni, partners and donors are essential in order for us to achieve these aims and convert our ideas into meaningful impact. Support comes in many forms; over the last few months we have seen members of the Deakin community donate to students in great need and to vital research projects, volunteer their time, and advocate for the University and the wider sector in many public forums. We know our University is stronger with your involvement.

We recently conducted a community-wide consultation on our new strategic plan – it was incredibly valuable to have such a strong response with 209 submissions and over 3,000 unique visitors to view the draft strategy on the website. The contributions were extremely insightful and constructive, demonstrating a deep knowledge of our University and a genuine care for its future. We have worked through all the feedback with great interest and some consistent themes emerged, which will be reflected in the final strategic plan and the complementary guiding plans, due to be launched in time for next year. We will share further details with you soon.

I hope you will join me at this year’s Alumni Awards, which is being held virtually on Thursday 8 October. It is a chance to celebrate the stories of outstanding Deakin alumni who are achieving remarkable things around the world – a real highlight of the University’s calendar and well worth an hour of your day.

Best wishes,

Iain.

Vice-Chancellor
Deakin University