University of Melbourne

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**The University of Melbourne**

Motto	Postera Crescam Laude "We grow in the esteem of future generations"
Established	1853
Type	Public
Chancellor	Ian Renard
Vice-Chancellor	Glyn Davis
Faculty	3,080
Undergraduates	25,535
Postgraduates	8,104
Location	Parkville, Vic., Australia
Campus	Urban, parks
Organisations	Member of Group of Eight and Universitas 21
Website	www.unimelb.edu.au

The "Old Quad Building", formerly "Old Law"

The University of Melbourne, located in Melbourne, Victoria, is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is in Parkville, an inner suburb of Melbourne just north of the city centre. Other campuses in Melbourne and rural Victoria have been acquired through amalgamation with smaller colleges of advanced education. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group.

Melbourne University is ranked amongst the top universities both in Australia and the world.^[1] The University is highly regarded in the fields of the arts, humanities, and biomedicine.^[2]

The University has almost 40,000 students, who are supported by nearly 6,000 staff members (full or part-time). On November 15, 2005, Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis announced a reform program entitled 'Growing Esteem'. The University will aim to consolidate its three core activities - Research, Learning and Knowledge transfer - in order to become one of the world's finest institutions. The University's degree structure will be changed to the 'Melbourne Model', a combination of various practices from American and European Universities, which administrators claim will make the university consistent with the Bologna Accord, ensuring its degrees have international relevance.

[edit] History

The luminous arches of "Old Law"

The University was established by Hugh Childers in 1853 by an Act of the Victorian Parliament passed on Saturday 22 January, and classes commenced in 1855 with three professors and sixteen students.

The original University buildings were officially opened by the then Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham, on 3 October 1855. The first chancellor, Redmond Barry (later Sir Redmond), held the position until his death in 1880.

In the university's early days, an architectural masterplan was developed, establishing the intended prevailing building style as gothic revival. Early influential architect's included Melbourne's own Joseph Reed, who was responsible for the design of many of the early campus buildings. Although the masterplan held as late as the 1930s, the 1950s saw the modernist style established as a new "house style" for the university, resulting in the mix of buildings seen today.

The inauguration of the University was made possible by the wealth resulting from Victoria's gold rush, and the University was designed to be a "civilising influence" at a time of rapid settlement and commercial growth (Selleck, 2003). The University was secular, and forbidden from offering degrees in divinity - the churches could only establish Colleges along the northern perimeter. The local population largely rejected the supposed elitism of its professoriate, favouring teaching of 'useful' subjects like law, over those they deemed 'useless' in the city's context, like classics. The townspeople won this debate, and law was introduced in 1857, and medicine and engineering in the 1860s.

The admission of women in 1881 was a further victory for Victorians over the more conservative ruling council (Selleck 2003, p164–165). Subsequent years saw many tensions over the direction of the emerging University. For example, in 1902 it was effectively bankrupt, following the discovery of massive fraud by the Bursar, Frederick Dickson. This resulted in a Royal Commission recommending new funding structures, and an extension of disciplinary areas into agriculture and education.

By the time of World War I, governance was again a pressing concern. The Council, consisting of more businesspeople than professors, obtained real powers in 1923 at the expense of the Senate. Undergraduates could elect two members of the Council. In this period, the University tended to attract students drawn from affluent backgrounds, with a few opportunities for gifted scholarship students. The first Vice-Chancellor to be paid a salary was Raymond Priestley (1936) followed by John Medley in 1939.

After World War II, demand for Commonwealth-funded student places grew in Australia, and the University followed demand by becoming much larger and more inclusive.

The University celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2003.

The University is the home of the Grainger Museum, celebrating the life and work of composer Percy Grainger.

[edit] Academia

The University has eleven faculties:

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning

Faculty of Arts

Faculty of Economics and Commerce

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Land and Food Resources

Faculty of Law

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Faculty of Music

Faculty of Science

Faculty of Veterinary Science.

These faculties offer courses from Bachelor Degree to Doctorate level. Land and Food Resources offers TAFE, diplomas, but in June 2005 it was announced that these will be transferred to other providers. Arts is the largest (7,222 students in 2004), followed by Science (6,328). The University has some of the highest admission requirements in the country, with the median ENTER of its undergraduates being 94.5. Furthermore, around 70% of those who finish in the top 1% of school leavers choose to study at Melbourne.^{[citation needed]}

Pure and applied research had already grown in importance from the late 19th century, but increased its reach and depth in the second half of the 20th century. Academic staff are expected to maintain a programme of research and to apply for funding opportunities. Science and Arts are the best-endowed Faculties in financial terms. The medical sciences benefit from proximity to a number of hospitals, and were enhanced by the opening of Bio21, a research centre focusing on pure and applied Biotechnology.

The university has an endowment of approximately $908 million AUD as of June 2005, which has grown rapidly over the past few years.^[3] One of only two Australian universities with significant private endowment; the University of Sydney's is marginally larger.^{[citation needed]} Both are small compared to the massive endowments of the wealthiest US universities such as Harvard or Princeton.

Four Nobel Laureates work on campus: Profs. Peter Doherty and Bert Sakmann are currently based in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, while Sir James Mirrlees (Economic Science, 1996 - emeritus, Cambridge) and Sir Clive Granger (Economic Science, 2003 - emeritus, San Diego), will teach a couple of months each year at the University from 2005.

Melbourne has produced the most Rhodes Scholars of any Victorian university, including the two 2006 winners.

In recent years the University has expanded the numbers of international students from 2,000 in 1996 to over 8,000 in 2006, achieved under the direction of former Vice Chancellor, Alan Gilbert. A separate venture, Melbourne University Private was created in 1997, and merged with the University at the end of 2005.

[edit] Residential colleges

Since 1872, the affiliated residential colleges have been an important part of the university. The earliest sought to emulate the finest European colleges, particularly those of Oxford. There are eleven affiliated colleges in total. Seven of the colleges are situated in an arc around the cricket oval at the northern edge of the campus, known as the College Crescent, with the other five within 15 minutes walk of the University of Melbourne.

**List of colleges**
College	Affiliation	External link
Trinity College	1872-	Website
Ormond College	1881-	Website
Janet Clarke Hall	1886-	Website
Queen's College	1887-	Website
Whitley College	1891-	Website
Newman College	1918-	Website
University College	1937-	Website
Medley Hall	1954-	Website
International House	1957-	Website
Graduate House	1962-	Website
St Hilda's College	1964-	Website
St Mary's College	1966-	Website

Most of the colleges only provide residence for students within the academic semester and encourage their students to find alternatives or return home during the summer and winter vacation periods. During this time they are often occupied by conference, sporting and retreat groups. As a result of this a large part of the students who live on campus at Melbourne University come from areas outside Melbourne particularly rural regions, interstate and overseas. The college community is viewed by many students as a helpful stepping stone to living independently particularly by those who have never lived in a big city before or who lack support networks within Melbourne due to the distance from their home town. The colleges also accommodate a large number of students from inner-city private schools. These students despite having families who live within a commutable distance of the University of Melbourne will choose to attend college as a means of expanding their social circle within the occasionally daunting university, to access the additional academic assistance offered by the colleges, as well as the standard stepping stone to independence.

The colleges provide accommodation to about 2000 students, which is a small fraction of the university's total student population. As well as accommodation, the colleges provide tutorials for their students (although unlike the Oxbridge colleges, the tutorials are purely extra assistance and do not form a fundamental part of any university course).

A larger proportion of students live in surrounding suburbs, and private city centre apartment complexes. Unlike other universities in Melbourne, most students catch public transport, as parking is expensive and scarce.

[edit] Architecture

Several of the original on-campus buildings, such as the Old Law and Old Arts buildings, feature beautiful period architecture.

Old Quad at night: the inner court of Old Law Building.

The expansion during the post-World War Two period saw the construction a number of functional high-rise office buildings and laboratories, in response to space shortages. These include the Raymond Priestley building (used for administration and nicknamed the "Wind Tunnel" due to its shape), the Redmond Barry building, Wilson Hall(1956, replacing the old Wilson Hall which was destroyed by fire), and some of the additions to the colleges. The Architecture building is a monolithic modernist design - a "strong statement of architectural modernism influenced by Le Corbusier". An addition to it added new roof offices in 1997. Economics and Commerce, extended in 1997, is described as "two lacklustre if not downright unpleasant buildings" by the author of the University walking tour.

Melba Hall and the Conservatorium of Music on Royal Parade are notable examples of Edwardian edifices which features rich Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau details. They were designed by Bates, Peebles & Smart and constructed between 1905 and 1935.

A recent spate of expansions have included the Ian Potter Gallery and the Sidney Myer Asia Centre (both designed by Nonda Katsalidis). The Potter Gallery in particular is highly regarded for its architecture, and won several awards when completed in 1999. The University Square development has extended the campus to the south, significantly opening up the grid-locked Parkville campus.

A searchable archive of photos, can be used to view individual features of the campus. UMAIC.

The Old Commerce building is listed on the National Trust Register as an interesting artifact. It is actually the facade of the former Collins Street Bank of New South Wales Melbourne office transposed onto a 1935 building. The bank earned architect Joseph Reed a first prize in architecture. When the building was demolished, the facade was transferred to the University of Melbourne to become the Commerce building. It has since made a number of cameo appearances in film and television.

Some of the affiliated residential colleges feature notable architecture; the most attention-grabbing is arguably the Ormond College with a clock tower, but Newman College is also well-known as one of the few remaining buildings designed by Walter Burley Griffin.

Queens College	Bishop's building, Trinity College	Ormond College	Newman College
Janet Clarke Hall	Medley Hall, Drummond Street, Carlton	1888 building	Ian Potter Museum of Art
Melba Hall & Conservatorium of Music	The Old Commerce building combines the relocated facade of a Collins Street bank with a 1930s building

[edit] Growing Esteem

[edit] New strategy

In 2005, the university developed a new strategy, which it named 'Growing Esteem'. A key feature of this is the 'Melbourne Model' for generalist degrees intended to lead to second tier courses which would be graduate entry. This model will begin to be rolled out in 2008 with courses such as law, nursing, education and architecture becoming graduate entry only. Detailed information about the new undergraduate courses will be available in the 2007 VTAC guide.

[edit] Courses

Six courses have been approved as 'new generation undergraduate courses': generalist degrees under the 'Melbourne Model'.

Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Commerce
Bachelor of Environments
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Bioscience

A number of professional courses will be moved to graduate entry including:

Juris Doctor of Law
Master of Animal Science
Master of Architecture
Master of Forest Science
Master of Nursing
Master of Property and Construction
Master of Public Policy and Management
Master Social Work
Master of Teaching
Master of Urban Horticulture

[edit] Links

Growing Esteem webpage

[edit] Student activities

Total enrolment at the University by sex, 1915-2005.

Main article: Melbourne University student organisations

The university has a rich student life due to the variety of clubs and services funded by the University of Melbourne Student Union. Student extracurricular activities generally come under the loose umbrella of the University of Melbourne Student Union, student sporting activities under the Sports Union and postgraduate students at University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association, a member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations. Many student clubs are affiliated with UMSU, as well as student theatre and the official student newspaper, Farrago. A scandal engulfed the Union in 2003, eventually leading to its collapse, liquidation and subsequent rebirth as a new entity. However, given the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism from the 1st July, 2006, it is likely the services and activities offered by this new Union will be diminished.

[edit] Prosh Week

Main article: University of Melbourne Scavenger Hunt

A celebrated tradition at Melbourne, whereby teams of students engage in various different activities including giant boat races, conga lines through the Melbourne CBD, and lecture stunts. These shenanigans culminate in the infamous Scav hunt, at the conclusion of which the winning team is announced.

In recent times the 'Scavenger Hunt' (Scav Hunt) has attracted controversy from the wider community, especially due to the nature of many of the tasks.^[4]

[edit] Sport

Melbourne University women's football player jostles for best position in a marking contest.

The university has participated in various sports in its history. It is currently the defending overall champion in the Australian University Games (AUG). The University of Melbourne is defending the title for three consecutive years.

[edit] Australian rules football

The Melbourne University Football Club founded in 1859, was a notable Australian rules football club that played 5 seasons in the Victorian Football League. The club has since rejoined the ranks of amateur teams. The University women's club, the Mugars, participates in the Victorian Women's Football League and is the most successful women's football team in the country.

[edit] Other campuses

The university has several other campuses located across Victoria.They are situated in Burnley, Creswick, Dookie, Werribee, and Southbank, Victorian College of the Arts.

The university also has its interests in Goulburn Valley, particularly in the areas of rural health, agriculture and education.

The university is a part-owner of the Melbourne Business School, the top business school in Australia in 2005 and 2006.^[5]

The university has a node of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics.

[edit] Rankings

In 1999, Melbourne University was ranked as the 10th university around the region by Asiaweek. The ranking is now discontinued.

In 2003, Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked The University of Melbourne at number 92 in the world. The position went up to number 82 in 2004 and 2005. The 2006 edition ranked The University at number 78, up by 4 places. This ranking is more skewed towards research and universities which focus on scientific research.

In 2005, Times Higher Education Supplement ranked The University of Melbourne at number 19 in the world. This is the highest ranking among the Australian universities and third highest in the region (behind Tokyo University and Beijing University). Furthermore, it has been ranked number 8 for Arts & Humanities, No. 10 for biomedicine, no. 11 for Social Sciences, no. 18 for Technology and no. 32 for science.

In 2006, Times Higher Education Supplement ranked the University of Melbourne at number 22 in the world. It dropped from no 19. However, Melbourne University has been ranked top 8 in terms of Peer Review. Because of the drop in ranking, University of Melbourne is behind four Asian universities - Beijing University, Australian National University, Tokyo University and National University of Singapore.

In addition, The University of Melbourne has been ranked no. 16 for Technology, no. 7 for biomedicine, no. 7 for Arts & Humanities and no. 10 for Social Sciences. University of Melbourne has been ranked 27 for science. Every category has improved compared to 2005.

In 2006, Newsweek in its rankings "The Top 100 Global Universities" ranked the University of Melbourne at 53rd in the world.^[6]

Melbourne Business School has been ranked 69 in the world. It is one of the highest ranked in Australia.

[edit] Notable graduates

Main article: List of notable University of Melbourne graduates

Notable graduates include Prime Ministers of Australia, Governors of Victoria, Nobel Laureates, a First Lady of East Timor, ministers of foreign countries, and prominent academics, politicians, industry leaders, lawyers, doctors, and artists.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ THES World University Rankings, The Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings 2005; accessed August 2, 2006
^ "Melbourne Uni ranks in top 20", The Age, October 28, 2005
^ Melbourne Uni's blue-chip fund top of the class, The Age, June 20, 2005.
^ "Uni scavenger hunt 'offensive, sexist'" The Age, November 10, 2005.
^ Global MBA rankings 2006
^ "The Top 100 Global Universities, Newsweek"

[edit] Books

Macintyre, S. & Selleck, R.J.W. (2003). A short history of the University of Melbourne. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-85058-8.
Selleck, R.J.W. (2003). The Shop: The University of Melbourne, 1850–1939. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press. 930pp
Cain J II and J Hewitt. 2004. Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University. Melbourne: Scribe.