Professor Barney Glover,who finished a 10-year stint as vice chancellor last week,said part-time work “should count for something in assessing the qualities of a student”.
Outgoing University of Western Sydney vice chancellor Barney Glover.Louis Douvis
“Because,let’s face it,if you’re doing part-time work,you’ve got some discipline,you’re learning skills,you’re learning hospitality,you’re learning food and retail,economics and finance. You’re doing a whole lot of skills which we can take into account,” Glover told theHerald.
He made the remarks at Auburn Girls High,where Katie Page,the billionaire chief executive of multinational retail giant Harvey Norman,announced on Thursday that the company she leads will donate $7.9 million to Western Sydney University.
The philanthropic gift will primarily benefit students at Auburn Girls High School through the Harvey Norman Young Women’s Leadership Academy led by Page.It comes almost a year after billionaire James Packer donated $7.9 million.
Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page with Auburn Girls High School students (from left):Hasini Poddaturu,Adeena Khan and Sarah Chaudhary.Rhett Wyman
Glover said the donation would help high school girls from disadvantaged backgrounds aspire to tertiary education and help them financially once enrolled.
“This Harvey Norman Leadership Academy is going to be designed at scale to help young girls right through Auburn Girls High School into tertiary education and along that journey to give them empowerment,leadership development,and,importantly,to understand what university education is all about,” he said.
Under the program,school students will attend workshops on personal and social capability to help them consider future career possibilities. It will provide financial support for 100 university students every year.
On Thursday afternoon,in the library at Auburn Girls High School,Page unapologetically announced the donation,which would go towards girls’ education.
“I am proudly for women and girls. Nothing against men – they get a lot. But for me,that’s where my resources go,” she told the room of students,teachers and officials.
Page,who did not come from a wealthy background,credits her own success,which includes 20 years as the chief executive of one of Australia’s most successful businesses,with the public education she received in the 1960s and 1970s in Queensland.
After school one day,her year 6 teacher spoke to her parents and recommended she attend one of the state’s few selective high schools. “The minute she spoke to my parents and I realised what it was about,I felt so lucky and so fortunate and that stayed with me. When you talk to these girls,they feel the same thing.”
Auburn in Sydney’s west has also been key to Harvey Norman’s success. The retail empire was born there in 1982 when Ian Norman and Gerry Harvey established their shop. There are now hundreds of stores around the world,across New Zealand,Europe,and South-East Asia. Page,who married Gerry Harvey in 1988,has been the company’s chief executive since 1999.
“We are Auburn. We are community. We have never left here. We’ve stayed here because this is where we started … If it wasn’t for the support of these people,we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Page said.
Year 12 student Sarah Chaudhary,17,is hoping to get into medicine at university next year. Alongside her classmates,she met Page who spoke to the girls about her early career experiences in corporate Australia in the 1980s and 1990s.
“There weren’t many women in[positions of] power. There was resistance within the country and within corporate Australia,” Sarah said.
“I was actually really nervous,[but] she was so down to earth. At the end of the day,we didn’t really think of her as a billionaire,we thought of her as a role model,someone who inspired us.”
