A lasting legacy

Since stepping down as UTS Chancellor in February 2016, Professor Vicki Sara AO has announced plans to continue her work in advancing the cause of university education, having accepted the role of Patron of the UTS Creating Futures Bequest Society. She has also revealed her intention to make a bequest of her own to UTS with a view to benefiting disadvantaged students – a generous gesture that is sure to have a lasting impact at UTS.

Together, we can ensure that UTS continues to educate global citizens for the many years to come and produce research with real impact.

"The honour of being Patron to the UTS Creating Futures Bequest Society is one that I have accepted with great humility and hope for the future," says Sara of the new appointment. "Together, we can ensure that UTS continues to educate global citizens for the many years to come and produce research with real impact."

The bequest Sara intends to make to UTS will be a significant one. "My mother left school when she was 12 to work in a factory. I don’t ever want to be part of a society where that happens again," Sara explains. "I want to use my money, my knowledge, everything I’ve learned, to enable me to provide scholarships."

That said, the bequest she intends to make to UTS will be "to support scholarships to provide opportunities for study at UTS."

Sara’s legacy gift to UTS follows a similar gift from former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ross Milbourne, who intends to leave a bequest to benefit sports students at UTS who need assistance with overseas travel. Together, this represents the first time in Australia that both a Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor will make a bequest to their university.

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I'm passionate about universities. There isn't enough money. I think we have to-I’m passionate about providing opportunities for 
all individuals to have the opportunity to consider tertiary education, going to a university. So my passion is not in the bricks and the mortar, in providing the equipment. It's actually in providing scholarships and opportunities for people who maybe didn't have it so so so lucky.

You know, my mother left school when she was 12 to work in a factory and I don't want to ever be part of a society where that has to happen again. So I want to use my knowledge, my money, everything I've learned, to be able to provide scholarships for people to be able to have the opportunities that I had. 

Education is thought to provide such huge public benefits in building a society who can debate and can think and can really consider issues going forward. That it's available to all citizens. Here, it's costly I think it's- I personally think it's appalling that we pay so much for education in this country. I don't know the answer because you know I mean, where we find the money to do it, but we have, that's why I'm so committed to building scholarships because I think it's wrong.

It's not a privilege education. It's a right that everyone should have. And I include tertiary education in that. I don't think you have to go to tertiary education. But if you want to and you have the ability to do it that opportunity has to be there for you. It's unjust in Australia and that's why I think societies like Creating Futures, that's exactly what the name says. We have to step in and fill a gap which is here in this country which isn't in other countries.

The UTS Creating Futures Bequest Society allows UTS’s closest friends to have a meaningful, long-term impact on education at UTS.