MONASH UNIVERSITY

'Monash University' is a public university, with campuses located in Victoria, Malaysia and South Africa. It is Australia's largest university with about 55,000 students. Monash consistently ranks amongst the top universities in Australia and the world^[1].
The University has a total of eight campuses: six in Victoria, Australia (Clayton, Caulfield, Berwick, Peninsula, Parkville and Gippsland), one in Malaysia and one in South Africa. The university also has centres in London and in Prato, Italy. This makes it Australia's most internationalised university by far.
Monash University is a member of the "Group of Eight", a lobby group comprised of some of the most research-intensive universities in Australia. It was recently ranked by The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) at number 38 in its annual ranking of the world's top 200 universities for 2006,^[2] the 4th Australian university in the top 50. Monash's Engineering Faculty was notably ranked number 1 in Australia and approximately number 16 in the world, according to THES 2004/2005. The university has a particularly notable Law School which is based in Clayton. Its undergraduate degrees are among the most sought after in the country. With eight universities in Melbourne, Monash attracts over 30% of the top 5% of Victorian school leavers.^[3]
Monash University is also Australia's premier medical research university, winning over $30 million in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants in 2006. It is home to the Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct (STRIP), the Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Australian Synchrotron (a $206 million particle accelerator), 95 research centres and 17 co-operative research centres.
The university is named after the prominent Australian general Sir John Monash. Its motto is ''Ancora imparo'' (Italian), meaning 'I am still learning',^[4] a saying attributed to Michelangelo.

Contents

History

Rankings

Campuses

Caulfield is Monash University's second largest campus. It's multifaceted nature is reflected in the range of programs it offers through the faculties of Arts, Art & Design, Business & Economics, Information Technology, Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and Engineering. It has also built an enviable reputation as a key centre for training and development of senior business people. The campus features a range of visual arts, educational and sporting events and facilities, and has well-established links with industry, government and the local community.

One of Monash's newest campuses, Berwick was built on the old Casey airfield in the south-eastern growth corridor of Victoria, Australia. The town of Berwick has experienced an influx of people and development in recent times, which includes the new campus of Monash University. With a presence in the area since 1994, the first Monash Berwick campus building was completed in 1996 and the third building in March 2004. It is situated on a 55-hectare site in the City of Casey, one of the three fastest growing municipalities in Australia. Since it is a new campus, the students and staff enjoy state-of-the-art facilities.

Parkville Campus

Peninsula Campus

Monash's South Africa campus is situated on the western outskirts of Johannesburg, and opened its doors in 2001. The campus is expanding its buildings and opened a new learning commons in 2007. It has so far failed to meet budget yet student numbers are growing at 35% per year.The campus offers a new element to the Monash mix. Home to over 1600 students (Mostly African students from outside South Africa), it offers a limited range of undergraduate degrees and began offering honours programs in 2006, Future expantion plans are for Masters and PHD programs to be offered in 2008.

London Centre

Faculties

Notable graduates

Libraries

Vice-Chancellors

Colleges and Halls of Residence

Student organisations

See also

Notes and references

External links

Books

History

Monash University is a commissioned Victorian university. It was established by an Act of the State Parliament of Victoria in 1958 as a result of the Murray Report which was commissioned in 1957 by the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies to establish the second university in the state of Victoria. The university was named after the prominent Australian general Sir John Monash. This was the first time in Australia that a university had been named after a person, rather than a city or state.
The original campus was in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Clayton (falling in what is now the City of Monash). The first University Council, led by Monash's first Chancellor Robert Blackwood, selected a British professor of engineering, Sir Louis Matheson, to be the first Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, a position he held until 1976. The University was granted an expansive site of 115 hectares of land at Clayton, after it had argued that, in the distant future, it was possible that Monash would have up to 12,000 students. Not even the most optimistic of Monash's founders could anticipate the size to which it would eventually grow.
From its first intake of 347 students at Clayton in 1961, the university grew rapidly in size and student numbers so that by 1967, it had enrolled more than 21,000 students since its establishment. It was originally intended to have an emphasis on science and technology, to compensate for the perceived weakness in this area at Melbourne University. However, it quickly expanded beyond this. In its early years, it offered undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering, medicine, science, arts, economics and politics, education and law. Initially, it was best known for its strong research capacity in the sciences, and for its innovative teaching in law and medicine. Along with the University of New South Wales and ANU, it also attracted interest for its focus on Asia. Along with UNSW, it was the major provider for international student places under the Colombo Plan, which saw the first Asian students enter the Australian education system.
In its early years of teaching and administration, Monash had the advantage of no entrenched traditional practices. This enabled it to adopt modern approaches without resistance from those who preferenced an established status quo. By contrast, Melbourne University struggled to enter the modern educational era, to the point that there was talk of a Royal Commission to overcome its antiquated style.^[5] In other respects, however, the youth of Monash was a burden. While Louis Matheson had good relations with government, Monash in the 1960s existed in a city where almost all professionals had attended Melbourne University. This meant that many officials and heads of professional bodies were "unsympathetic" to Monash's requests. For example, it was many years before the Faculty of Medicine received funding for Monash Medical Centres to complement its teaching and research
From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Monash became the centre of student radicalism in Australia. It was the site of many mass student demonstrations, particularly concerning Australia's role in Vietnam War and conscription. The origins of mass student demontstrations in Melbourne were those against capital punishment, and some of the largest protests occurred at Monash in the final years before it was abolished in Victoria. By the late 1960s, several student organisations, some of which were influenced by or supporters of communism, turned their focus to Vietnam, with several blockades and sit-ins on University Council chambers. The most famous student radical was Albert Langer, who regularly made newspaper headlines and caused major disruptions at the Clayton Campus. So great was publicity surrounding the protests that many in Australia and around the world first heard of Monash not because of its teaching and research, but because of its protests. In recent years, student radicalism has died down, although there have been occasional protests on government higher education policy.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Monash's most publicised research came through its pioneering of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Led by Professors Carl Wood and Alan Trounson, the Monash IVF Program delivered the first IVF baby in Australia in 1980.^[6] This eventually became a massive source of revenue for the University at a time when university funding in Australia was beginning to slow down. Along with its advances in medical sciences, Monash also began some of the world's first research in the then little known field of bioethics, with Monash philosophers Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse establishing the Centre for Human Bioethics in 1980.
In the late 1980s, the Dawkins Reforms changed the landscape of higher education in Australia. All Australian universities either sought to expand and consolidate their teaching and research bases, or merged with larger institutions. Probably the most aggressive of any Australian university, under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Mal Logan, Monash transformed dramatically. In 1989, Monash University had only one campus, Clayton, with around 20,000 students. Just over a decade later, it had 8 campuses (including 2 overseas), two European research and teaching centres, and more than 50,000 students, making it the largest and most internationalised Australian university.
The expansion began in 1990, with a series of mergers between Monash, the Chisholm Institute of Technology, the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education. In 1991, Monash, to the surprise of many, merged with the Victorian College of Pharmacy, which most people had predicted would merge with the University of Melbourne. Monash University's expansion continued in 1994, with the establishment of the Berwick Campus. So great was the University's expansion that it was reported at the time that Monash might attempt a takeover of La Trobe or Deakin universities, but this did not eventuate.
In 1998, the University opened the Sunway Campus, its first overseas campus and the first foreign university in Malaysia, after a longstanding presence in South East Asia. In 2001, the Johannesburg Campus opened its doors, making Monash the first foreign university in South Africa. While the University is currently developing a research academy with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,^[7] and has made its international focus explicit, it has stated that no further large-scale international campuses are currently planned. However, its stated long-term goal is to establish campuses on every continent except Antarctica.
At the same time, Australian universities faced unprecedented demand for international student places, which Monash met on a larger scale than most, to the point that today around 30% of its students are from outside Australia.^[8] Today, Monash students come from over 100 different countries, and speak over 90 different languages. The increase in international students, combined with its expansion, meant that Monash's income skyrocketed throughout the 1990s, and it is now one of Australia's top 200 exporters.^[9] Reportedly, former Vice-Chancellor Mal Logan, who led the Monash expansion, was fond of citing the fact that Monash's annual budget exceeded that of the State of Tasmania.
In recent years, the University has been particularly prominent in medical research. A highlight of this came in 2000, when Professor Alan Trounson led the team of scientists which first announced to the world that nerve stem cells could be derived from embryonic stem cells, a discovery which led to a dramatic increase in interest in the potential of stem cells.^[10][11] To capitalise on its medical research capacity, the University has been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to develop large research facilities at its Clayton Campus. In 2001, it was announced that the Monash Clayton Campus would be the site for the Australian Synchrotron, which was completed in August 2007. In 2006, the University began developing the $138 million Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, which will be one of the largest stem cell research centres in the world when it opens in 2008. In addition to this, the University now houses the Australian Stem Cell Centre, Nanovic, Stem Cell Sciences Limited and the largest monoclonal antibody production facility in the Southern Hemisphere.^[12][13] Such developments have made Monash the main location of stem cell research in Australia.^[14] It has also led to Monash being ranked in the top 20 universities in the world for biomedicine.^[15] In 2010, the Clayton Campus will also be the site of the John Monash Science School, Victoria's first specialist select-entry high school for students gifted in maths, science and technology.^[16]
On October 21, 2002 Huan Yun "Allen" Xiang (an international student at the time from China) shot two people dead and injured five others on the Victorian Monash University Clayton campus. For more information on the topic see the article Monash University shooting.
The current Vice-Chancellor of Monash University is Professor Richard Larkins (since September 2003^[17]). Professor Larkins has been appointed as chair of Universities Australia, efffective 2008.^[18]

Rankings

Research produced by the Melbourne Institute in 2006 ranked Australian universities across seven main discipline areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Science.
For each discipline, Monash University was ranked:^[19]

Discipline	R1 ★	No.	R2 ★	No.
Arts & Humanities	4	38	4	35
Business & Economics	5	39	4	34
Education	2	35	3	32
Engineering	4	28	5	28
Law	5	29	5	28
Medicine	3	14	4	13
Science	6	38	8	31

.
★ R1 refers to Australian and overseas Academics' rankings in tables 3.1 -3.7 of the report. R2 refers to the Articles and Research rankings in tables 5.1 - 5.7 of the report. No. refers to the number of institutions in the table against which Monash is compared.
The following publications ranked universities worldwide. Monash University ranked:

Publications	Ave.	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Times Higher Education Supplement[20]	34.7						33	33	38
Shanghai Jiao Tong University[21]						152-200	202-300	203-300	201-300
Newsweek[22]									73
The Economist
AsiaWeek ★
Financial Times MBA rank[23]
Economist Intelligence Unit's MBA rank[24]									49
Webometrics:[25]									144

.
★ AsiaWeek is now discontinued.

Campuses

Clayton Campus

The Monash Clayton campus covers an area over 1.1 km² and is the largest of the Monash campuses. It is Monash's flagship campus, demanding higher ENTER scores than its other campuses. The notable David Derham School of Law is situated at this campus.
In 2001, the State Government of Victoria decided to build the first Australian synchrotron adjoining Monash's Clayton Campus. The Australian Synchrotron opened in July 31, 2007 and is capable of viewing matter at the molecular level using synchrotron light. Monash University contributed $5M towards the $206M cost of the synchrotron as a member of the funding partnership for the initial suite of beamlines. The Clayton Campus is also home to a number of halls of residence, colleges and other on-campus accommodation. These house several thousand Monash students.
The Clayton campus has its own suburb and postcode (3800).

Caulfield Campus

Caulfield is Monash University's second largest campus. It's multifaceted nature is reflected in the range of programs it offers through the faculties of Arts, Art & Design, Business & Economics, Information Technology, Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and Engineering. It has also built an enviable reputation as a key centre for training and development of senior business people. The campus features a range of visual arts, educational and sporting events and facilities, and has well-established links with industry, government and the local community.

Berwick Campus

One of Monash's newest campuses, Berwick was built on the old Casey airfield in the south-eastern growth corridor of Victoria, Australia. The town of Berwick has experienced an influx of people and development in recent times, which includes the new campus of Monash University. With a presence in the area since 1994, the first Monash Berwick campus building was completed in 1996 and the third building in March 2004.
It is situated on a 55-hectare site in the City of Casey, one of the three fastest growing municipalities in Australia. Since it is a new campus, the students and staff enjoy state-of-the-art facilities.

Gippsland Campus

Gippsland campus is home to 2,000 on-campus students, 5,000 off-campus students and nearly 400 staff. The campus sits in the Latrobe Valley town of Churchill, 142km east of Melbourne on 63 hectares of landscaped grounds. It is the only non-metropolitan campus of Monash University. The Gippsland campus offers many undergraduate degrees, and is about to begin teaching graduate degrees in Medicine.
The Gippsland campus takes in many students from the Latrobe Valley, East and West Gippsland. It has a range of on campus accommodation, which many students choose to stay in during the academic year. The University is currently constructing residential facilities for a further 200 students and staff, in anticipation of the opening of the Medical School in 2008.[1]

Parkville Campus

Parkville campus is also known as the Victorian College of Pharmacy. It is situated in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville, around 2km north of the CBD on Royal Parade. The Victorian College of Pharmacy has a reputation for innovation, particularly in the areas of formulation science and medicinal chemistry. The Parkville campus offers bachelor degrees in Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science, which replaced the Bachelor of Formulation Science in 2007. It also offers postgraduate degrees.
It has undergone renovations lately, and a new research building has just been built in the campus. The Parkville campus of Monash University demands high ENTER scores from applicants, due to the high competition for the Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science degrees offered at the campus. ENTER scores for the pharmacy degree are usually required to be above 95.00 and around 90.00 for the Pharmaceutical Science and Medicinal Chemistry degrees.

Peninsula Campus

The Peninsula campus of Monash University has a teaching and research focus on health and wellbeing. The campus is located in the bayside suburb of Frankston on the edge of Melbourne.
Its teaching and research focus on health and well-being, but the campus also offers a range of courses including those from its historic roots with early childhood and primary education. The campus was also home to the Peninsula School of Information Technology, which in 2006 was wound back with Information Technology units previously offered being relocated to the Caulfield campus.

Malaysia Campus

The Monash University campus in Malaysia opened in 1998 and is often referred to as the Sunway campus, due to its location in the Bandar Sunway township in Malaysia. The Sunway Campus offers various undergraduate degrees through its faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Engineering, Information Technology, Business, and Arts and Sciences. It is currently home to over 3,000 students.
Previously the campus shared a cluster of buildings with Sunway University College. In 2007, a new independent campus, located close to the previous campus, has been constructed and is now fully operational. It is currently Monash University's third largest campus after Clayton and Caulfield with a new modern concept for the library which was named 'Learning Commons'. The Campus also offers both postgraduate Masters and PhD programs. Its degrees in Medicine and Surgery are the first medical degrees outside Australia and New Zealand to be accredited by the Australian Medical Council.

South Africa Campus

Monash's South Africa campus is situated on the western outskirts of Johannesburg, and opened its doors in 2001. The campus is expanding its buildings and opened a new learning commons in 2007. It has so far failed to meet budget yet student numbers are growing at 35% per year.The campus offers a new element to the Monash mix. Home to over 1600 students (Mostly African students from outside South Africa), it offers a limited range of undergraduate degrees and began offering honours programs in 2006, Future expantion plans are for Masters and PHD programs to be offered in 2008.

Monash College

As a branch of Monash University, Monash College is an educational institute providing students with an alternative point of entry to Monash University. The institution offers preparatory studies for students who endeavor to undertake studies at one of Monash University's many campuses. Monash College's specialised undergraduate diplomas (equivalent to first year university) provide an alternative entry point into more than 50 Monash University bachelor degrees, taught intensively in smaller classes and an environment overall similar to that offered by the university.
Monash College offers its complete services in several countries throughout the world, with colleges located in Australia (Clayton), China (Guangzhou), Indonesia (Jakarta), Singapore and Sri Lanka (Colombo).

Prato Centre in Prato, Italy

The Monash University Prato Centre is located in the 18th Century Palace, Palazzo Vaj, in the historic centre of Prato, a city in Tuscany near Florence. Primarily, it hosts students from Monash's other campuses for semesters in Law, Art and Design, History, Music, as well as various international conferences. It was officially opened in 2001 as part of the University's vigorous internationalisation policy. It is now the largest Australian academic institution of its kind in Europe.

London Centre

Located on Surrey Street, on the Strand Campus of King's College London.

Faculties

Monash is divided into 10 faculties. These incorporate the University's major departments of teaching and research centres.

★ Art and Design

★ Arts

★ Business & Economics

★ Education

★ Engineering

★ Information Technology

★ Law

★ Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences

★ Pharmacy (Victorian College of Pharmacy)

★ Science
Stand-alone, interdisciplinary research centres, which are not located within one faculty, include:

★ Monash University Accident Research Centre

★ Asia Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation

★ Institute for Regional Studies (IRS)

★ Monash Asia Institute (MAI)

★ Monash e-Research Centre

★ Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy

★ Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science

★ Monash Sustainability Institute

★ Monash Institute for Nanosciences, Materials and Manufacture

★ Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements

Notable graduates

Main articles: List of Monash University people

Monash has a long list of alumni who have become prominent in a wide range of areas. Monash graduates who are currently leaders in their fields include the Governor of Victoria, the Treasurer of Australia and Victoria, numerous Government Ministers in Australia and overseas, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Victorian Chief Magistrate, the Archbishop of Sydney, the Australian of the Year, prominent entrepreneurs, economists, actors, journalists, mayors, philanthropists, scientists, surgeons, sportspeople and authors.

Libraries

Monash University Library is one of Australia's leading academic libraries, with a long-standing reputation for technological innovation and excellence in customer service. Currently it operates several libraries in all of its campuses, spanning over 3 continents. Monash University Library has just under 3 million items.

★ Clayton Campus

★
★ Hargrave Andrew Library

★
★ Law Library

★
★ Sir Louis Matheson Library

★ Caulfield Library

★ Berwick Library and Learning Commons

★ Gippsland Library

★ Peninsula Library

★ CL Butchers Pharmacy Library (Parkville Campus)

★ Sunway Library and Learning Commons (Malaysia Campus)

★ Monash South Africa Library

Vice-Chancellors

★ Sir Louis Matheson (1960-1976)

★ Raymond Martin AO (1977-1987)

★ Mal Logan AC (1987-1996)

★ David Robinson (1997-2002)

★ Peter Darvall (2002-2003)(acting)

★ Richard Larkins AO (2003-)

Colleges and Halls of Residence

Main articles: Monash Residential Services

Monash Residential Services (MRS) is responsible for co-ordinating the operation of on-campus halls of residence. MRS manages a variety of facilities at all five Australian campuses and South Africa.
The following residences are based at the Clayton Campus:

'List of colleges'

College	Affiliation
Howitt Hall	1966-
Farrer Hall	1965-
Richardson Hall	1972-
Deakin Hall	1961-
Roberts Hall	1971-
Normanby House	1960s-
Mannix College	1969-
South East Flats

Facilities in are diverse and vary in services offered. Information on residential sevices at Monash University, including on-campus (MRS managed) and off-campus, can be found at http://www.mrs.monash.edu.au/.

Student organisations

There are approximately 55,000 students at the university, represented by individual campus organisations and the university-wide Monash Postgraduate Association.

★ Monash Union of Berwick Students (MUBS) - Berwick campus

★ Monash Student Association (MSA) - Clayton Campus

★ Monash Student Union Caulfield (MONSU Caulfield) - Caulfield Campus

★ Monash University Gippsland Student Union (MUGSU) - Gippsland Campus

★ Monash Parkville Students Association - Parkville Campus

★ Monash Student Union Peninsula (MONSU Peninsula) - Peninsula Campus

★ Monash Student Association of South Africa - Johannesburg Campus

★ Monash University Student Association (MUSA) - Malaysia campus

See also

★ Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

★ List of Monash University people

★ Monash University shooting

Notes and references

1. http://www.theage.com.au/ne/national/melbourne-uni-ranks-in-top-20/2005/10/27/1130400306704.html
2. http://www.idp.com/uk/newsevents/article924.asp
3. http://www.monash.edu.au/news/monashmemo/
4. http://www.monash.edu.au/about/shield.html
5. Simon Marginson, Monash: Remaking the University, Allen & Unwin, 2000, p. 13
6. http://www.monashivf.com/default.asp?action=article&ID=21660
7. http://www.monash.edu.au/iitb/
8. http://www.monash.edu.au/about/stats.html
9. Simon Marginson, "Monash University" in ''The Encyclopaedia of Melbourne'', Andrew Brown-May & Shurlee Swain (eds), Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2005
10. http://www.stemcellcentre.edu.au/public-education_research.aspx
11. http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/newmedia.nsf/798c8b072d117a01ca256c8c0019bb01/773344f4c4f794baca25714e0005c518!OpenDocument
12. http://www.monash.edu.au/strip/tenants/index.html
13. http://www.monash.edu.au/news/monashmemo/stories/20070711/antibody.html
14. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/312/5772/345a.pdf?ck=nck
15. http://www.monash.edu.au/news/monashmemo/stories/20070509/medicine-institute.html
16. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/20m-maths-science-school-for-clayton/2007/08/12/1186857347045.html
17. http://monash.edu/news/monashmemo/stories/20030528/dvc.html
18. http://monash.edu/news/monashmemo/stories/20070725/vice-chancellor.html
19. Melbourne Institute rankings
20. The Times Higher Education Supplement
21. Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
22. "The Top 100 Global Universities, Newsweek" Newsweek's ranking of Monash University.
23. Monash University's MBA rank with the Financial Times.
24. Monash University's MBA rank with EIU.
25. Monash University's Webometric ranking

External links

★ Official Monash University website

★ Official Australian Synchrotron website

Books

★ Sir Robert Blackwood, ''Monash University: he first ten years'', Melbourne, Hampden Hall, 1968

★ Simon Marginson, ''Monash: Remaking the University'', Allen & Unwin, 2000
★

★ Sir Louis Matheson, ''Still learning'', South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1980.