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Due largely to the vision of Sir John Winthrop Hackett, the University of Western Australia (UWA) was established as the State’s first University in 1911. It was established as “A university for all”, promoting equal access to tertiary education for all social classes.

With a father who started as a telegraph boy in Southern Cross and worked his way upwards as a mail sorter to eventually become a supervisor within the GPO mailroom in Perth, and a mother who was a secretary in the Trades Hall in Midland, I am one of the many thousands who have since been privileged to have benefited from Hackett’s original vision. Being able to enter UWA in 1970 on a Commonwealth scholarship (and with no university fees at that time), Medical School was an achievable reality and enabled the realisation of the aspirations instilled by teachers and family during an excellent high school education.

This year we are delighted to continue to fulfill Hackett’s original mission by welcoming the first three students into our Medical School who have entered via our Outer Metropolitan Program. This program was inaugurated by the Faculty last year as a pilot project in three outer urban high schools selected because they had never sent a student to the Medical or Dental School at UWA.

This year we have increased to 10 high schools and next year 17 schools will be targeted. This rapid expansion has been made possible through a successful UWA application to the Federal Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund for a project called AspireUWA. This program was awarded $2.5 million and one of its major goals is to encourage entry into the professions from under-represented groups, building on UWA’s successful Rural Medicine and Dentistry program. That program has now been running for eight years and is now successfully recruiting 25 per cent of the intake of the Medical School and up to 10 per cent of the intake of the Dental School from students in rural and remote Western Australia.

With 42 students entering via this pathway this year, together with five new indigenous students and our inaugural outer metropolitan students, we can truly now lay claim to recruiting from the whole of the West Australian community for the whole of the WA community.

The Challenge

However, the ongoing realisation of Sir John Winthrop Hackett’s vision remains a major challenge to both the University and this Faculty during an era of economic uncertainty for many, financial hardship for some and HECS fees for all. The efforts of Sir John Winthrop Hackett to see his initial vision fulfilled included a bequest he made as founding Chancellor of more than £425,000 (the equivalent of more than $32 million today) to the University. Such large scale generosity is only within the reach of a very few in our society, but smaller donations to secure the establishment of scholarships for those medical and dental students enrolled through special entry pathways are within the reach of many of our alumni.

The Kasner Moss bequest has been directed by the Faculty towards the first scholarship for the highest achieving student entering the Medical School through the new Outer Metropolitan Program while the Dental Foundation of Western Australia has already commenced fund raising towards the $120,000 necessary to establish an inaugural scholarship for the first dental student to eventually enter via the same special entry pathway. The ambition is to ultimately see every successful student who enters through our special entry pathways receive a scholarship to encourage their retention and progress through what are long and demanding but ultimately highly rewarding courses.

As we move closer towards the celebration of the first 100 years of this University, I now appeal to the alumni of this Faculty to consider how their contributions might further fulfill Sir John Winthrop Hackett’s vision of “a university for all”. I look forward to your support.