It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that my success at university is owed in part to Deakin’s Warrnambool campus, where I commenced my studies. Since beginning there in 2014, the staff at the Warrnambool campus did something that all educational institutions should aspire to do – they invested in me. In a small class of about 15 students, our teachers Dr Kim Teh and Andy Finlay gave so much time to the class.

As a result of the Warrnambool campus, students benefited from:

Through my enjoyment of the university life and hard work, I won the prize for the most outstanding first-year student at the campus. This was not advertised beforehand. I was devastated to learn that I could not complete my studies at the campus, due to few units actually being offered there.

Warrnambool, if anything, should serve as a model for the type of community we want at Deakin.

There was a student in my class who worked full time and was studying law to make a better life for herself and her children. When she narrowly failed an assignment (by no means due to a lack of trying), she stopped attending class. It was clear that she had dropped out. What occurred next is something unexpected and rarely seen elsewhere. Teachers and students in the class all called her, and spent hours convincing her to come back and finish what she had started. After all, she deserved to succeed and we all compelled her towards that success. Several long phone calls later from classmates and teachers, and she returned to finish the unit with a fantastic score. That is the Deakin Warrnambool character – encouraging each other towards success.

I cannot help but note the significant lack of investment by the university in making the campus attractive to prospective students, including a significant lack of units being offered for the campus; decline in the units offered; lack of awareness of prizes for high achieving students; and high parking rates and living costs, despite plenty of parking space and many of the residential buildings remaining empty.

Professor den Hollander, I implore you to reconsider the the closure of the Warrnambool campus. As one of Deakin’s greatest assets in competing with other institutions, I urge you to invest in the campus.

We have a brilliant institution – one that faces challenges with a courage unheard of anywhere else – and this is owed to your stewardship. In approaching the challenges faced by the university, I offer my full background of experience, relevantly as a marketing strategist for international companies and as a leader. I know others can offer even more – let’s take advantage of these skills in our community to make one of our greatest assets even more prosperous.

After all, the Warrnambool campus and the staff there did not just give me a chance; they invested in me.

Do the same for the Warrnambool campus.

Nicholas Brewer, Melbourne

I am a third-year law student with Deakin University and a proud advocate of the Warrnambool campus. I grew up in a farming community, my mother was a nurse and my father was a stock agent. I am a country boy.

I came into contact with the Warrnambool campus on the day of university placements. It was a blessing in disguise. 

During my schooling years it was driven into each and every student that the only option for success in law was to be accepted into Melbourne University, undertake a generalist degree and then further on your studies with your master’s degree.  As an educated man, I reminisce on such an event and question how wrong and impersonal that approach was and still remains. After all, as you must agree, no educational institution can or should be seen to paint all their students with one brush. Further to all of this, my ATAR was not something the school would boast of.

From such a score, all my opportunities for going to either Monash University or Melbourne University were crushed. To further my study in my desired course, Warrnambool was the only option for me.

Warrnambool did not even ask for my ATAR score, they simply accepted me. Without getting political regarding VCE, I do believe it is imperative to unlock the student’s personal skills and talents and not compare students on a static platform. From my own perspective, I believe I have humour, understanding and ultimately great inter-personal skills. That is simply my talent. Thank God I have it, because that was the only thing that gave me the determination and courage to undertake my legal work.

Having a grown man cry because he has lost his family due to a breakdown, comforting a rape victim, having a wife enter the office fearful of her violent husband were confronting to say the least – especially considering my rather sheltered background.

The Warrnambool campus has an environment to ensure that your opinion and essential skills of personality and interaction are also vital Graduate Learning Outcomes for the degree. I will take that up with the academic board. Nonetheless, It helped me.  

Watching all my friends travel and move to Melbourne was hard. However, you only get what you want from an education when you are determined to succeed. I am only a young individual, yet, I have many things I would like to achieve throughout my career. I cannot help but juxtapose my position to that of others who got on the Melbourne ‘bandwagon’.

Does their accommodation cost them extraordinary amounts of money? Yes. 

Do they have a vast and invigorating network of mentors? No. 

Are their courses of a practical nature? No. 

What has come of this? Deakin in Warrnambool is practical and friendly, I could work and undertake full-time university without any assistance from my parents or the government. Warrnambool provides a platform for those who work hard to succeed, unlike any other institution.

What a relief it was to arrive in Warrnambool and find people fishing and having a creative time. Life is so different in a country setting – so much better, to be honest. You can take the boy out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the boy. Although I live in Melbourne, Warrnambool was a vital and integral part of my education and I implore you to rally the university to follow suit and ensure that this opportunity is not taken away, but enhanced! Clever marketing and slight course alteration can see this campus thrive.

From my point of view, I have undertaken the most amazing legal work experience through my connections at Warrnambool. I discuss such experiences with my counterparts at other universities and counterparts at Deakin Geelong and Burwood and they all show an envy on how this can be achieved.

Legal practitioners do not always look at grades – what they do look at is competence and individuality. Yet, I have always had a warm reception when I announce I am from Warrnambool – 350km makes a huge difference if you want to stand out from the crowd.

All other metropolitan universities seem to fabricate their courses to only aim for top-tier firms. After all, 25 per cent of legal graduates cannot find a job after four months of graduation (Lawyers Weekly, 2013). How do we make Deakin’s graduates stand out? The answer is not austerity, the answer is innovation and courage. The answer is Warrnambool. 

Vice Chancellor Jane den Hollander, I put it to you that you and I are part of an organisation that is leading the way for accessible and meticulous learning. Both you and I have to strive to be involved in this.

Do not misunderstand me. I am a conservative individual and I totally accept that the survival of Warrnambool is in jeopardy if the outcomes and finances are not in balance.

Yet, I say fight harder. You have been quoted saying: “As a result of these issues, Deakin’s trademark student experience, (we are proudly number one in Victoria for student satisfaction) is compromised at our Warrnambool campus and so we are looking for a new provider which is better able to meet the higher education needs of students and businesses in the region.”

Jane, I have no doubt as an intelligent and admirable lady you have the most honourable intentions. However, I do believe in the administration of justice. As such, whoever has resourced this information to you has not done so with any insight into the true functioning of the Warrnambool campus. This statement is questionable to the highest degree. Put another way, the trademark for Deakin – being proudly number one in Victoria for student satisfaction – is enhanced due to Warrnambool.

From my experience at Burwood, I can safely say that the uniformed calibre of the lecturers in Warrnambool does outshine that of the Burwood lecturers. I am not casting doubt regarding competence. But clarity and precision have been clear features of the Warrnambool campus.

Vice-Chancellor, if things are changing we adapt; if things are tough we get tougher or if things aren’t working we fix it. If things fail, we make it succeed. That is the Australian way and that is the Deakin way.

As you will surely understand, education is the first piece of many to build a successful nation. This is no grand statement. If you lift the education and, therefore, the innovative capacity of the citizens of a nation, the nation itself becomes educated and innovative. I believe it can be Deakin at the forefront of education, with Warrnambool playing its essential part in the region and the nation. I think Warrnambool has so much to offer in maritime studies, agriculture, global studies, other community services like health and in my case, law.

We have to make Deakin proud of this asset.

Jane den Hollander, I have not met you, although I do believe I know that you will stand up for honesty and courage, and you will not take the easy way out. You are a strong leader. I have no doubt that you can lead Warrnambool into successful, prosperous times. Jane, you have your fiercest supporter already backing you.

William Gunn, Warrnambool

The review of further education in the Great South Coast region must seek to retain Deakin University as the first priority.

Deakin’s charter refers to its rural and regional commitment and Vice Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander has always promised to sustain the Warrnambool campus. Now she seems keen to pursue a shift to Federation University but clearly Deakin has not properly consulted the community in the lead-up to this review. Warrnambool campus staff and key stakeholders feel they could have contributed but were not given the opportunity.

The community has now demonstrated its support for Deakin and wants to work with the university to help it retain the Warrnambool campus and let the 2020 strategy run its course.

To abandon Deakin’s commitment to Warrnambool and rural and regional education would be unforgivable and the federal government must not allow it to happen.

Federation University appears to be a favored option but the implications must be seriously considered.

If it was allowed to operate as a dual sector provider it would split the TAFE market.  I find it incredulous that people could be pushing for this in the light of the damage it would cause to our very successful South-West TAFE.

It should be remembered that Federation University is substantially lower on the university rankings than Deakin. Why should we expect second-best?

Deregulation and the removal of caps has been a disastrous government policy for rural universities but there are options for Deakin in Warrnambool that could and should be considered.

The federal government has the power to stop Deakin leaving our region and our local MP must fight for this outcome. 

I call on the government to refuse to allow Deakin to withdraw from Warrnambool and on Deakin to fulfil its commitment to deliver the Warrnambool 2020 strategy and to honour its charter commitment to rural and regional education.

From my recent surveying of community and business it is clear that Federation University is not a preferred provider and there are many great ideas out there. Let’s hear them all.

Mike Holland, Warrnambool

It's time for the federal government to step up to the plate and financially support a university for Warrnambool.

If they don't, it's another sad indication that those in Canberra don't care about the people of south-west Victoria.

The reality is Deakin doesn't want to be here anymore, so we need to look at other options.

Our best other option is to secure a Federation University campus for Warrnambool. Otherwise there's a huge chance Warrnambool will have no university at all.

To do this we need $15 million in funding from the federal government and the support of our Federal MP Dan Tehan to make this happen.

There has been a huge amount of work done at the state level; now it's time for the federal government to chip in and do their bit.

I hope Mr Tehan rates this as highly as we do and shows this by securing the funding this week. There's no need to drag this out to be an election issue – by then it will be too late for the people of Warrnambool and district.

James Purcell MP, Port Fairy

The Napthine Government denigrated firefighters, politicised the fire services, cut $64 million from their budgets, then wasted a further $21 million in unsuccessful legal attacks on firefighters.

Its spirit lives on in South West Coast MP Roma Britnell who is concerned that Warrnambool is getting too many full-time firefighters and that is making some volunteers 'dejected'.

Volunteers do an essential job – providing surge capacity in major incidents, covering areas where there is no full-time fire service, and working closely with full-time firefighters in integrated fire stations like Warrnambool. The CFA says Warrnambool is a very effective integrated fire station.

Victoria relies heavily on its volunteers – and genuinely appreciates their service. But a Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria spokesman says Warrnambool has an 'excessive' number of full-time firefighters.

Arguing for fewer firefighters is like arguing for slower response times to fires, accidents and other emergencies. And it's selfish.

Volunteers are essential but can rarely match the 90-second response of the full-time crews based 24 hours, seven-days-a-week in the local fire station. Volunteers can be at work, out of town, on holidays when the alarm sounds. But they do their very best.

The 2012 Telstra exchange fire caused a three-week outage costing the community nearly $20 million.

Maybe next time there is a major blaze in Warrnambool there will enough crew to operate the aerial appliance which stood idle in the backyard of the fire station that morning.

Or would a few out-of-town volunteers feel 'dejected'?

Peter Marshall, Secretary, United Firefighters Union, Fitzroy

Meitaki maata, Warrnambool – thank you very much.

We came for two years and stayed for eight. During this period, we indulged ourselves in the wonderfully welcoming community that Warrnambool and district is.

Brauer College has been home to Pete, George and Henry, while Lyndoch provided Dale with plenty to keep her occupied.

Local dairy farmers tolerated Henry and his hair, Warrnambool Golf ladies clubbed together to help Dale maintain par, while swimming groups, Clontarf academies, Melbourne and Deakin Uni expanded Pete’s horizons. George found his niche at La Trobe Uni and now in Wangaratta.

To Coral and Bryan Mcgarvie, our cottage has been truly magic – thank you for having us. 

As we depart on an eight-month retirement treat in Europe and Scandinavia before returning to our native New Zealand to live, this open letter expresses our sincere gratitude to all of those who have touched our lives here in Warrnambool and districts. 

We have been blessed in knowing, playing and working with you all.

Dale, Pete, George and Henry McLeod, Warrnambool