Institute Directors' Welcome

Welcome to The Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle. Wollotuka has and continues to be at the forefront of Indigenous higher education best practice and outcomes for Indigenous students. Wollotuka has from the outset set the highest attainable standards and those directives have at all times encompassed a desired Indigenous framework of best practice.  We want to develop and extend this reputation. We will do this by the way in which we nurture and support our Indigenous students, and by the quality of their achievements. We aim to increase the number of Indigenous Australians who have completed university study so that they in turn can be empowered to make their own contributions in the development of Australia.

Wollotuka is fortunate to occupy the iconic Birabahn Building on the Callaghan Campus of the University. It is a site, concept, and a community dedicated to public and intellectual exchanges across the fields of human endeavour. Wollotuka values its strong links with the Indigenous Community, particularly the Pambalong clan of the Awabakal, Darkinjung and Birapai peoples (the original custodians of the lands on which the University is located), and with the Worimi and Wonnarua and other peoples of the region, and with the Indigenous peoples of the national and international community.

The University of Newcastle has a strategic priority of making the high quality education of professionals one of its defining features. Nowhere is this more important than in the education of Indigenous Australians. The University of Newcastle Implementation Plan 2007-11 – Indigenous Collaboration states strongly that it is the University’s directive that ‘we will be internationally recognised for the quality of our Indigenous research activities and we will link research outcomes to our teaching curricula’.

Additionally the University was awarded commendation through the Australian Universities Quality Agency Audit Report of 2008, ‘AUQA commends UoN on the support given to Indigenous students by Wollotuka including… the number of successful completions of Indigenous students’.  The Good Universities Guide to Postgraduate and Career Upgrade Courses identifies the University of Newcastle’s Indigenous participation with a five star rating.

We encourage you to come join us in an environment of high achievement and a sense of close family and community.

Professor John Lester, Director, Academic & Research

Assoc. Professor Peter O'Mara,  Director, Indigenous Health

Leanne Holt,  Director, Indigenous Student Support, Employment and Collaboration