ALL’s founder honoured by Swinburne University

Ellen Koshland, the founder of the Australian Learning Lecture, received an Honorary Doctorate of Education by Swinburne University.

The following citation was originally published in the Swinburne University of Technology, Graduation Ceremony Program, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 August 2018.

“Ellen Koshland is a leading champion of education, whose passion lies in ensuring quality education for all Australians.  

She has been an active supporter of literature and education in Australia since her arrival from the USA in 1973.

Ms Koshland established the Education Foundation in 1989 to garner support for public education.  The Education Foundation worked with other charitable foundations, businesses and individuals to fund programs that actively supported students to develop their talents and foster a love of learning.

Under Ms Koshland’s leadership the Foundation raised more than $10 million to fund over 500 programs in schools across Australia, changing the lives of many thousands of state school students and teachers.

It has had a significant impact on public debate around school education, ranging from issues such as personalising learning, providing adequate resources for education to all schools, and raising awareness of what success in education should look like. 

More recently, Ms Koshland founded the Australian Learning Lecture (ALL), in collaboration with State Library Victoria.  The ten year project aims to enrich the conversation in Australia about education by providing big ideas and compelling reasons for new approaches.  It has held roundtables with government and also provided resources for classroom use of data to ensure success for every student.

Ms Koshland is a funding partner of the Global Education Leaders Partnership, a powerful alliance of global education leaders from countries on all continents whose vision is the transformation of education systems to enable higher order learning capabilities in every student.

Ms Koshland has been the founding donor of The Stella Prize, Director of The Poet’s Voice, Victorian Co-Chair of Anti-Poverty Week, Education Ambassador for the Melbourne Community Foundation and a judge for many community awards, including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

She is also a major supporter of Our Schools’ project, which seeks to build a strong alumni system for government schools, and a supporter and public advocate for the Swinburne Alternative Tertiary Entry Program.

Her values reflect Swinburne’s approach to building high quality public education.  They strongly align with the university’s focus on research-based methods to support personalised learning, diversity and access for all sectors of the community, in particular for those who suffer most from disadvantage.

Ms Koshland’s significant contribution to providing quality education to all and her dedication to social change philanthropy in action are most aptly recognised through this Honorary Doctorate.”