Furthering knowledge

Mr John Velegrinis has swapped banking for education.

Report: Sophie Marcard
Photography: Greg Ford

The Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) has partnered with the Faculty of Education to provide a suite of new scholarships aimed at fostering research in education.

ASG is a not for profit specialist education benefits provider that offers parents a proactive and disciplined way to plan for their children's education - both secondary and tertiary. It offers a range of services to assist in nurturing and funding their children's education.

Over the six-year partnership ASG will support the ASG Scholarship for Excellence, the ASG PhD Scholarships for mid-career teachers plus ASG emergency relief grants and ASG travel grants.

For ASG Chief Executive Officer John Velegrinis the driving force behind the partnership is the research produced by the students. “There is a need to do research to progress our knowledge about education.  We might intuitively believe that something is right, but there is a great need to do the research and actually prove it,” said Mr Velegrinis, a former banker.

“Many times research not only answers the questions it sets out to but also discovers new ideas. Research advances human knowledge.”

The series of ASG scholarships will support a number of students.

“One of the things our scholarships assist with is living costs. The other costs of education – like rent and bills – are often forgotten. Keeping focused on their studies is not as easy as it might sound,” said Mr Velegrinis.

Professor John Loughran, the Dean of Education, who has practised as a secondary teacher himself, explained that scholarships are vitally important to grow the breadth of knowledge about education and to help build the next generation of teachers and tertiary educators.

“The Faculty of Education seeks to continue to attract the brightest students, regardless of their financial circumstances, in an increasingly competitive market place. Scholarships and bursaries are a key way in which the University can attract talented students and nurture the teachers and education academics of the future,” said Professor Loughran.

“It is very hard for a successful mid-career teacher to take up further study at doctoral level on a full time basis. The ASG scholarships have created new possibilities for teachers to pursue their research in the Faculty of Education and produce great work that can inform the way forward for education,” he said.

“Mid-career teachers who go on to undertake a PhD bring extensive practical experience to their research. They pursue research topics about the field’s most pressing contemporary issues. Importantly, through their research studies, they also have the opportunity to contribute to education at the tertiary level and many go on to become the education scholars of the future.”

Mr Velegrinis shares this view: “We are helping to develop the next raft of great educators.”