University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne crest University of Melbourne crest
Motto	Postera Crescam Laude "We grow in the esteem of future generations"
Type	Public
Established	1853
Endowment	$1 billion
Chancellor	Ian Renard
Vice-Chancellor	Glyn Davis
Academic staff	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, after the University of Sydney. The oldest and 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.

The University of Melbourne is one of the most prestigious universities in Australia according to several international indices. In 2005, the University of Melbourne ranked nineteenth in The Times Higher Education Supplement's list of the world's best universities, the highest rank of any Australian university. It also ranked eighth in the world for arts and humanities, and tenth for biomedicine. However given that these surveys involve graduates ranking the prestige of their own universities, many industry experts consider them to be misleading.

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 universities. The plan will be introduced over ten years, and is likely to see the total number of students attending the university drop to 30,000 students. The University's degree structure will be changed to the 'Melbourne Model', a combination of best practice from American and European Universities, which administrators claim will make the university consistent with the Bologna Accord, ensuring its degrees have international relevance.

History

File:LuminousArches.jpg

The luninous 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, held the position until his death in 1880. 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.

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 (6,400 students in 2004), followed by Medicine, Dentistry and Health (5,800) and Economics & Commerce (4,700). 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.

The "Union Lawn" and the Old Commerce building (now the Architecture, Building & Planning Faculty office), which shows the mix of 19th and 20th century architecture on campus.

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 programe 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. While the largest of any Australian university, it is 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, however this was a commercial failure and subsequently merged with the University at the end of 2005.

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. Most 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 a few further afield.

The colleges are informally divided by size. The four larger colleges: Trinity (Anglican), Ormond (Uniting - formerly Presbyterian), Queens (Uniting - formerly Methodist) and Newman (Jesuit), occupy a majority of the land around the College Crescent, have the largest studentries.

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. Colleges are generally considered a positive opportunity however the cost proves a limiting factor for many.

The colleges provide accommodation to about 3000 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.

Architecture

The Ian Potter Gallery.

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

File:Old Law.jpg

Old Quad at night. The inner court of Old Law Building gives the feel of a military structure.

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 Hallwhich 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.

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

Student activities

Total enrolment at the University by gender, 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, the services and activities offered by this new Union will be severely diminished.

Prosh Week

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 (all of which may or may not involve the consumption of alcohol). These shenanigans culminate in the infamous 'Scav hunt', at the conclusion of which the winning team is announced. The name 'Prosh' is said to have originated decades ago, when all of the faculty social balls were held in the same week. The week was nicknamed 'Posh week' due to the number of times students would have to dress up in formal attire. The effects of alcohol caused words to be slurred, and thus 'posh' became 'prosh'. Hence the name which has remained to this day.

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

A particularly notable Prosh week prank was instigated by Barry Humphries, a former student of the University. Road works were being conducted on Swanston Street by council workers, however Humphries went to the local police station, claiming that these 'road workers' were actually students causing mischief. The police promptly went to investigate, however Humphries had also 'warned' the council workers that a group of students dressed as policemen were going to attempt to arrest them. When the policemen arrived, the road workers (thinking they were students) told them to clear off. The policemen, believing the same about their counterparts, ignored this request and attempted to arrest them. The resulting chaos has fallen into University folk lore.

Sport

The university has participated in various sports in its history. It is currently the defending overall champion in the Australian University Games (AUG).

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 participates in the Victorian Women's Football League and is the most successful women's football team in the country.

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.

Notable graduates

This is an incomplete list of prominent 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.

See main article, List of notable University of Melbourne graduates.

See also

• Melbourne University ALP Club
• Melbourne University Labor Club
• Melbourne University Publishing
• Bibliography of the history of the University of Melbourne

References

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.

Newspaper

• McPhee, P. 2005. "From the Acting Vice-Chancellor." Uni News. The University of Melbourne. 03/10/05, p.3.

External links

• University website
• 2005 Annual Report
• Map