Colin Crabtree
Director, advancement and marketing
Avondale College of Higher Education

So, Avondale has an EFTSL increase of 9.865 over this past year’s record. Depending on your perspective, this may or may not sound encouraging. I think it’s the former, and here’s why.

The Australian tertiary education sector has never been more competitive. In 1996, there were 19 universities; there are now 41—a university for every 500,000 people.

So why is Avondale even growing at all? Two reasons.

First, the quality of staff. What other university has staff who know your name, care about you and your career and care about your values? Avondale is a life-changing experience with a mission way beyond the delivery of knowledge.

Mission, that’s the second reason. The most important factor influencing new students to study at Avondale: “the spiritual aspect,” which at 37 per cent had more than twice the weighting of the next most important factor. The popularity of the chaplaincy and counselling courses reflect a new personal form of ministry, and they reflect Avondale’s motto “for a greater vision of world needs.”

There is no question in my mind that God is helping a ‘small boat’ called Avondale chart a course through stormy academic waters, an ocean where even many bigger ships have run aground.