The
University of Melbourne (informally Melbourne University or simply
Melbourne) is an Australian public research university located in
Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest
university and the oldest in Victoria.Times Higher Education ranks
Melbourne as 33rd in the world, while the SQ World University Rankings
places Melbourne 31st in the world. According to SQ World University
Subject Rankings 2015, the University of Melbourne is ranked 5th in the
world for Education, 8th in Law, 13th in Computer Science & IT, 13th
in Arts and Humanities, 14th in Dentistry and 18th in Medicine.
Melbourne's
main campus is located in Painkiller, an inner suburb north of the
Melbourne central business district, with several other campuses located
across Victoria. Melbourne is a sandstone university and a member of
the Group of Eight, University 21 and the Association of Pacific Rim
Universities. Since 1872 various residential colleges have become
affiliated with the university. There are 12 colleges located on the
main campus and in nearby suburbs offering academic, sporting and
cultural programs alongside accommodation for Melbourne students and
faculty.
Melbourne
comprises 11 separate academic units and is associated with numerous
institutes and research centers, including the Walter and Eliza Hall
Institute of Medical Research, Flora Institute of Neuroscience and
Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social
Research and the Rattan Institute. Among st Melbourne's 15 graduate
schools the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School and the
Melbourne Medical School are particularly well regarded.
Four
Australian prime ministers and five governors-general have graduated
from Melbourne. Seven Nobel laureates have been students or faculty, the
most of any Australian university.
Arms
The
university's coat of arms is a blue shield on which a depiction of
"Victory" in white color holds her laurel wreath over the stars of the
Southern Cross. The motto, Post era scream laud ("Later I shall grow by
praise" or, more freely, "We shall grow in the esteem of future
generations"), is written on a scroll beneath the shield. The Latin is
from a line in Horace's Odes: ego posters scream laud recess.
History:
Melbourne
University was established by Hugh Chillers, the Auditor-General and
Finance Minister, in his first Budget Speech on 4 November 1852, who set
aside a sum of £10,000 for the establishment of a university. The
university was established by Act of Incorporation on 22 January 1853,
with power to confer degrees in arts, medicine, laws and music. The act
provided for an annual endowment of £9,000, while a special grant of
£20.000 was made for buildings that year. The foundation stone was laid
on 3 July 1854, and on the same day the foundation stone for the State
Library Classes commenced in 1855 with three professors and sixteen
students; of this body of students, only four graduated. The original
buildings were officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor of the
Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Gotham, on 3 October 1855. The first
chancellor, Redmond Barry (later Sir Redmond), held the position until
his death in 1880.
The view of the Melbourne Law School, Business and Economics, The Spot and Alan Gilbert Building. The
inauguration of the university was made possible by the wealth
resulting from Victoria's gold rush. The institution was designed to be a
"civilizing influence" at a time of rapid settlement and commercial
growth. In 1881, the admission of women was a seen as victory over the more conservative ruling council. The university's 150th anniversary was celebrated in 2003.Autumn at the university grounds.
Governance
Governance
of the university is grounded in an act of parliament, the University
of Melbourne Act 2009.The peak governing body is the "Council" the key
responsibilities of which include appointing the Vice Chancellor and
Principal, approving the strategic direction and annual budget,
establishing operational policies and procedures and overseeing academic
and commercial activities as well as risk management. The chair of the
council is the "Chancellor". The "Academic Board" oversees learning,
teaching and research activities and provides advice to the council on
these matters. The "Committee of Convocation" represents graduates and
its members are elected in proportion to the number of graduates in each
faculty.
Endowment
The
University of Melbourne has an endowment of approximately $1.335
billion, the largest of any Australian tertiary institution. However,
Australian endowments are relatively small compared with those of the
wealthiest US universities. This
was after a recovery period of the University's hardship following the
2008 Great Recession, where it shrank by 22%. This required
restructuring of the university including cutting of some staff.
Academia
The
university has 11 academic units, some of which incorporate a
graduate school. The overall attrition and retention rates at the
university are the lowest and highest respectively in Australia. The
university has one of the highest admission requirements in the country,
with the median ATTAR of its undergraduates being 94.05 (2009). Furthermore, The university continued to attract outstanding students;
for example, 50% of the Premier's VICE Top All-Round High Achievers
enrolled at the University of Melbourne. According
to the 2009 Times Higher Education–SQ World University Rankings,
Melbourne was then the only Australian university to rank in the top 30
in all five core subject areas with three subject areas ranked in the top
20.
Researchers
at the University of Melbourne have published a paper, ‘Vocational
education's variable links to vocations’, that "considers the roles that
tertiary education qualifications, in particular mid-level
qualifications, play in assisting their graduates to gain entry to and
progression in work and how they may be strengthened".
Research
Melbourne
University claims that its research expenditure is second only to that
of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO). In 2010 the university spent $813 million on research.[5] In
the same year the university had the highest numbers of federal
government Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) and International
Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS), as well as the largest
totals of Research Higher Degree (RHD) student load (3,222 students) and
RHD completions (715).
Campus
Melbourne
University has 12 residential colleges in total, seven of which are
located in an arc around the cricket oval at the northern edge of the
campus, known as College Crescent. The other five are located outside of
university grounds. The residential colleges aim to provide accommodation and holistic education experience to university students. Most
of the university's residential colleges also admit students from RMIT
University and Monash University, Parkville campus, with selected
colleges also accepting students from the Australian Catholic University
and Victoria University.
Libraries
Bail lieu Library in Painkiller Campus. January, 2014 Inside the Bail lieu Library in January, 2014
The
Melbourne University Library has three million visitors performing 42
million loan transactions every year. The general collection comprises
over 3.5 million items including books, DVDs, photographic slides, music
scores and periodicals as well as rare maps, prints and other published
materials. The library also holds over 32,000 e-books, hundreds of
databases and 63,000 general and specialist journals in digital form.
The libraries include:
Bail lieu Library (arts and humanities)
Brown less Bio medical Library
Eastern Resource Center (ERC)
Goblin Henson Library (business, economics and education)
Law Library
Lenten Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library (formerly V CA Library)
Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library
Melbourne School of Land and Environment Library (Burnable, Brunswick, Nookie)
Veterinary Science Library
Other campuses
Melbourne Business School in Painkiller
The university has four other campuses in metropolitan Melbourne at Burnable, South bank, Hawthorn and Beriberi. The
Burnable campus is where horticultural courses are taught. Performing
arts courses are taught at the South bank campus. Commerce courses are
taught at the Hawthorn campus. Veterinary science is taught at the
Beriberi campus. In
regional Victoria, the Brunswick and Nookie campuses are used for
forestry and agriculture courses respectively.They previously housed
several hundred residential students, but are now largely used for short
courses and research. The Sheppard campus is home to the Rural Health
Academic Center for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Sciences.
The
university is a part-owner of the Melbourne Business School, based at
Parkville campus, which ranked 46th in the 2012 Financial Times global
rankings.
Arts and culture:
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, which houses the university's visual arts collection. Thirty-three
cultural collections, embodying the history of many of the academic
disciplines taught at the university. These include the Grainger Museum
Collection of musical cultural artifacts;[45] the Medical History
Museum, covering the history of the medical profession in Victoria; and
the Harry Brooke Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, which contains
more than 8,000 specimens relevant to the teaching of medicine and other
health sciences.
The Melbourne Curriculum
Main article: Melbourne Curriculum
The
University of Melbourne is unlike any other university in Australia in
the fact that instead of offering specialized undergraduate degrees the
university instead, offers nine generalized 3 year degrees:
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Agriculture
Bachelor of Bio medicine
Bachelor of Commerce
Bachelor of Environments
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Oral Health
Bachelor of Science
The
change and the resulting curriculum is often referred to as the
"Melbourne Model". The University then offers postgraduate
courses(including the professional-entry master's degrees) which are
more specialized which follow on from their undergraduate degree.
The "Melbourne Model" was implemented under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor Glen Davis in 2008.
In 2007, Melbourne University aimed to offer 75% of graduate places as HECS (with the remaining 25% being full fee paying).
Professional-entry master's degrees
A
number of professional degrees are available only for graduate entry.
These degrees are at a masters level according to the Australian
Qualification Framework, but are named "masters" or "doctorate"
following the practice in North America. The professional degrees are:
Juries Doctor
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Dental Surgery
Doctor of Optometry
Doctor of Physiotherapy
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Master of Animal Science
Master of Architecture
Master of Applied Linguistics
Master of Landscape Architecture
Master of Biotechnology
Master of Engineering
Master of Environment
Master of Education
Master of Forest Science
Master of Nursing Science
Master of Property and Construction
Master of Public Policy and Management
Master of Social Work
Master of Teaching
Master of Urban Horticulture
Master of Urban Planning
Master of Urban Design
Master of Food Science
Reaction to the Melbourne Curriculum[edit]
Various
groups, including trade and student unions academics,and some students
have expressed criticism of the Melbourne Model, citing job and subject
cuts, and a risk of "numbing down" content. A group of students also
produced a satirical musical regarding the matter.
V CA merger and controversy
Main article: University of Melbourne Faculty of V CA and MCM
As
of May 2009 the university "suspended" the Bachelor of Music Theater
and Puppetry courses at the college and there were fears they may not
return under the new curriculum.
A
2005 heads of agreement over the merger of the V CA and the university
stated that the management of academic programs at the V CA would ensure
that "the V CA continues to exercise high levels of autonomy over the
conduct and future development of its academic programs so as to ensure
their integrity and quality" and also that the college's identity will
be preserved. New dean Sharma Pretty outlined drastic changes under the
university's plan for the college in early April 2009. As a result, it
is now being called into question whether the university have upheld
that agreement.
Staff
at the college responded to the changes, claiming the university did
not value vocational arts training, and voicing fears over the future of
quality training at the VCA. Former Victorian arts minister Race
Mathews has also weighed in on the debate expressing his hope that,
"Melbourne University will not proceed with its proposed changes to the
Victorian College of the Arts", and for 'good sense' to prevail.
In
2011, the Victorian State Government allocated $24 million to support
arts education at the V CA and the faculty was renamed the Faculty of
the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatory of
Music.