A Strategic Overview
The University of Melbourne Plan
growing esteem
Viewing higher learning as a public good
in a rapidly evolving knowledge economy
1
A Strategic Overviewuniversities draw on a grand tradition.
Yet universities fulfil their missions best by being true to their present, and by actively shaping their future.
At the University of Melbourne, our plans for the decade to 2015 view higher learning as a public good in a rapidly evolving knowledge economy.
The name of our strategy is taken from the University’s motto, postera crescam laude, drawn from Horace’s famous ode. If our institution is to make lasting contributions and be well regarded by future generations, how should it respond to a world of constant change?
Our strategy is conceived as a triple helix. This is a metaphor we use to represent the three main strands of work that make up our academic mission: research and research training, learning and teaching and knowledge transfer.
In each, our choices will be guided by public purposes. But the way they interact and how we finance and manage our portfolio of programs will vary.
Our task as an institution is to make sure each strand of academic work has significant focus and impact; that each reinforces the others; and that together they build our reputation as one of the finest universities in the world.
This is the commitment we make to our students and staff, past and present; to our partners and sponsors, and to the wider communities we serve.
Glyn Davis Vice-Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis
The University of Melbourne Plan
our tradition
The University aspired to be known for educational excellence and its wider contribution to the
public and private good
3
A Strategic Overviewthe university of melbourne was established in 1853, with its first intake of students in 1855.
It was founded to educate privileged students in an intimate setting, at a standard that would match Oxford.
Adopting the Greek goddess Nike as a symbol of prowess, and a Roman poet’s promise to ‘grow in the esteem of future generations’, the University aspired to be known for educational excellence and its wider contribution to the public and private good.
In the decades that followed the University took up research, community outreach, public service and nation-building programs consistent with its character as a public institution.
For most of this history the University was funded by government, its finances supplemented with fees from students.
Commercial enterprise was the business of others, beyond the pale of ‘a place apart’. Philanthropic income, ever welcome, was sporadic and serendipitous.
In recent decades especially, much has changed…
The Old Quadrangle, one of the University’s sandstone buildings.
The University of Melbourne Plan
the present
Melbourne’s qualifications are highly regarded by employers and Melbourne graduates
benefit accordingly
Director of the University’s Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, Professor Tim McCormack, and research student, Ms Sarah Finin, have been providing key assistance to US Guantanamo Bay defence lawyer, Major Michael Mori.
5
A Strategic Overviewtoday the University of Melbourne is ranked as a leading university in Australia and internationally.
Every one of its faculties has staff of high national and international standing in their fields.
The institution supports more than 5 700 researchers, including more than 4 000 higher degree research students. Some 100 research centres provide a focus for work in specialist disciplines and multidisciplinary fields.
Domestic and international enrolments have grown dramatically. Total student numbers, full-time and part-time, reached over 44 000 in 2006, including more than 10 000 international students.
Over the last 10 years more than 90 per cent of Victoria’s most outstanding school leavers have chosen to study at the University. Melbourne’s qualifications are highly regarded by employers and Melbourne graduates benefit accordingly. Melbourne topped the 13 Australian universities listed in the Times World’s Top 200 Universities 2006 for the employability of its graduates.
2006 student enrolments included more than 10 000 international students.
today the university of melbourne is ranked as a leading university in australia and internationally
The University of Melbourne Plan
context for the decade to 2015
Over the last 10 years more than 90 per cent of Victoria’s most outstanding school leavers have chosen to study at the University
Melbourne aims to attract the best and the brightest students, regardless of their financial circumstances
7
A Strategic Overviewlike other Australian universities, Melbourne now participates in a new mixed economy of higher learning at national level, and a rapidly evolving knowledge economy at global level.
Once a publicly funded institution, the University now draws less than a fifth of its income from recurrent Commonwealth funding.
The progress of knowledge relies on international effort, with co-sponsored programs and shared datasets, with competition for expertise, project funding and scientific breakthroughs. New global ranking systems compare universities on measures such as research impact, focusing on journal citations and global recognition of individual researchers. Such rankings tend to ‘brand’ institutions for prospective students as well as prospective staff.
In education there are moves internationally to standardise degree structures. In an increasingly ‘borderless’
world, students and employers value more widely recognised and ‘portable’ degrees. In Europe and Asia, broad undergraduate study followed by professional specialisation at graduate level is an emerging trend, one that aligns with North American traditions.
There is also an increasing emphasis on cross-disciplinary research, challenging traditional discipline-based structures and groupings.
The rise of international markets for research programs, course offerings and expertise creates more scope for cross-border collaboration and partnership. It also creates more intense competition for talented students and staff, and for project funding. Many established institutions have extended their reach through offshore partnerships, while new educational enterprises have emerged to meet mass demand with teaching-only and e-learning modes of provision.
At national level, governments recognise the multiple roles played by higher learning in economic and social development, from human capital formation to research-led problem solving. Yet rarely does government share academia’s regard for ‘knowledge for its own sake’. External links that connect academic expertise directly with industry, community agencies and public policy challenges are seen as indicators of social relevance.
As the knowledge era advances, the familiar academic tasks of research and teaching have expanded to form a ‘third stream’ of activity known as knowledge transfer. This work entails wider engagement with partners and constituencies beyond the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, scholarly communities and learned journals and emphasises the exchange of information for mutual benefit.
The University of Melbourne Plan
Melbourne’s vision
Melbourne will work to meet global challenges with
intelligence and ingenuity, and respect for cultural
difference and common humanity
9
A Strategic Overviewin pursuit of its vision to be one of the finest in the world, the University is guided by the following principles:
•
As a scholarly community, Melbourne will uphold the values of intellectual freedom, honesty, openness and rigour;•
As a research institution, Melbourne will open new paths to scientific understanding, support critical and creative endeavour and provide an outstanding research training experience for future leaders in academia, government and industry. Melbourne will continue to support a comprehensive array of disciplines, while also directing additional funding towards disciplines of strategic importance in which the University is currently or potentially a world-leader;•
As a teaching institution, Melbourne will seek out the brightest students from the widest range of backgrounds.It will offer an outstanding education designed to equip each new generational cohort to succeed in a globalised world, and define a future that it values;
•
As a public-spirited institution, Melbourne will make its research, student learning and knowledge transfer programs serve public ends;•
As an internationally engaged institution, Melbourne will work to meet global challenges with intelligence and ingenuity, and respect for cultural difference and common humanity. It will draw on the rich diversity of its staff and student body, strong relationships with overseas partner institutions, and an alumni network of talented graduates spread across the globe; and•
As a university with a strong sense of place, Melbourne will cherish its campus locale, set in a vibrant multi-cultural metropolis. Here face-to-face teaching will be the norm, scholars will gather from across the globe, and learning communities will enrich their work with evolving technologies.Melbourne’s campus locale is set in a vibrant multi-cultural metropolis, contributing to the “Melbourne Experience” for the university community.
The University of Melbourne Plan
a triple helix strategy
Research, teaching and knowledge transfer.
Our aim is to deepen the relevance and
widen the impact of our academic mission
11
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
melbourne’s strategy is conceived as a triple helix.
This reflects our decision to supplement an established mission in research and teaching with a third strand of work which we call knowledge transfer. These are projects based on engagement, exchange and partnership with wider constituencies.
Our aim is to ensure that all three strands are sharply focused, well-resourced and mutually reinforcing.
With greater concentration of institutional resources in each strand, our aim is to deepen the relevance and widen the impact of our academic mission.
This means work on setting priorities, structuring programs, designing enterprise systems, and deploying institutional resources to realise the talents and contributions of staff, students, sponsors and partners.
To this end, in 2006 the University reviewed its portfolio of academic programs, and will do so every three years.
Each review will use a transparent approach to shape institutional priorities, create measures for testing effectiveness, and evaluate program outcomes to inform our future choices.
our academic mission sets priorities, structures programs, designs enterprise systems, and deploys institutional resources to realise the talents and
contributions of staff, students, sponsors and partners
a sharper focus for
research and research training
Research scientists, Dr Una Greferath and Dr Marc Murphy, and PhD student, Ms Alison Canty, are shown snap-freezing brain tissues that have been placed in liquid nitrogen for section analysis.
Melbourne is situated in Australia’s best bio-medical precinct,
where we work closely with a group of eminent research institutions
13
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
as a research-intensive australian university, Melbourne already scores strongly against every national research indicator. These measure research income and publications, and the number and success rate of research higher degree students.
Melbourne is also situated in Australia’s best bio-medical precinct, where we work closely with a group of eminent research institutions. In late 2006, the University and the Victorian Government announced a research innovation partnership between the Bio21 Institute (a multidisciplinary research centre, which specialises in medical, agricultural and environmental biotechnology) and Australia’s biggest biopharmaceutical company, CSL Limited.
During 2006 a systematic internal review tested whether each of Melbourne’s disciplinary areas was within the top three in Australia for research. More than 90 per cent of departments were found to be so. In all areas a five-year plan for improvement is now in place.
Viewed internationally, the University is one of only two Australian universities to be ranked among the top 100 in the Shanghai Jiao Tong index, which emphasises international research impact as its main criterion.
Looking ahead, Melbourne aims to have more of its researchers among the top 250 in the world in their fields, and to make visible progress on some of the world’s most challenging research problems, such as climate change.
To this end the University will invest new resources in fewer research programs with stronger cross-disciplinary links, while retaining its comprehensive array of research-led disciplines.
The Strategic Research Initiatives Fund will support more intensive cross-disciplinary research across networks of academic departments, industry and other tertiary institutions.
The University will extend its successful program for attracting Nobel Laureates and other renowned scholars, and recruit an outstanding group of Future Generation Professors and Fellows to lead collaborative research programs that require cross-disciplinary and partnership support.
Central to the University’s strategy for learning and teaching is the Melbourne Model. This is a far-reaching reform that will define a new national benchmark in higher education
new directions
in learning and teaching
15
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
lord broers, an alumnus of Melbourne, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge from 1996-2003, and now President of the Royal Academy of Engineering observed in a 2006 lecture to the UK Higher Education Policy Institute that:
what we need first and foremost from our universities is the provision for young people of an adequately broad knowledge base, together with modern analytical and communication skills…many of our undergraduate courses have become too narrow and over specialised and do not equip the young with flexible intellects that will be able to adapt to changing circumstances. An undergraduate degree should cover the fundamentals of a coherent range of subjects.
Central to the University’s strategy for learning and teaching is the Melbourne Model. This is a far-reaching reform that will define a new national benchmark in higher education and ensure a distinctive ‘Melbourne Experience’ for all students.
In 2006 the University’s Curriculum Commission worked closely with faculties to review existing curricula, define the core elements of the Melbourne Model and devise a 10-year transition plan. The Report of the Curriculum Commission sets out design principles for future undergraduate, postgraduate coursework and research higher degrees.
Six new generation undergraduate programs will offer Bachelor degrees in Arts, Biomedicine, Commerce,
Environments, Music and Science. Introduced progressively from 2008, they will offer pathways into employment, professional graduate programs or research higher degrees. The University will also establish a series of graduate schools to expand its range of graduate programs. Beginning with Law, Architecture and Education, the graduate model will later extend to Engineering, Medicine, Physiotherapy and other areas. Some Melbourne faculties will eventually stand alone as graduate schools.
The Melbourne Model fits well with the emergence of life-long learning and multiple careers in the changing workplaces of the twenty-first century. It reflects a global trend toward broader undergraduate programs, followed by intense professional training at postgraduate level. In the Australian context it will give students more time to consider career choices, with final decisions about professional paths taking place when entering graduate school.
This will distinguish Melbourne degrees from those of other Australian universities, and enhance international recognition of our graduates in overseas universities and labour markets.
While overall student numbers will not grow significantly, the University’s balance of enrolments will shift from one in four at postgraduate level to at least one in three. In sum, Melbourne aims to be a destination of choice for graduate students who have completed an undergraduate degree at Melbourne or elsewhere.
Professor Peter Doherty, Nobel Laureate, offers inspiration to students, during one of his many lectures.
knowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer forms the
primary intellectual conduit
between the University’s academia
and the wider non-academic society
17
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
the third strand of work in Melbourne’s triple helix of academic programs is knowledge transfer.
Acknowledging the importance of knowledge transfer recognises that universities have a responsibility to be a public good, with community expectations of a broader contribution to intellectual and economic life.
Knowledge transfer forms the primary intellectual conduit between the University’s academia and the wider non-academic society. The University’s research, education, and technology connect into community and industry through many different paths - commercialisation, policy, public debate, partnership and exchange, and cultural leadership. In 2006, a scoping study of knowledge transfer across the university revealed our involvement with over 1200 partners beyond the campus.
Potentially, knowledge transfer covers a wide spectrum of dealings between the University and other spheres – from the way public intellectuals use media platforms to generate national debates; to policy work with governments, industry bodies or community agencies; to contract research and education services; to business ventures that distribute new technology; to artistic projects and cultural exhibitions that change community consciousness by reflecting contemporary culture. Perhaps the best-known type is technology transfer, where the products of research are developed and disseminated via private investment and market mechanisms. An example is the cochlear implant, developed by a Melbourne researcher and now marketed around the world by an Australian public company.
A Knowledge Transfer Taskforce set up in 2006 recommended that Melbourne define knowledge transfer as the development of intellectual capital through a two-way mutually beneficial interaction between the university and non-academic sectors with direct links to research and learning and teaching, and informed by social and global issues. The University’s knowledge transfer is anchored in its intellectual capital, history and tradition, and a reputation for innovative leadership in the higher education sector.
In 2007 the emphasis will shift to new initiatives, implementation, building and demonstrating capability. A new Knowledge Transfer Committee will develop an internal and external communication plan for knowledge transfer implementation, identify and implement a strategic development program for the embedding of knowledge transfer in research and the curriculum and investigate options for the detailed measurement of knowledge transfer activities.
The University will launch the first of its University-wide knowledge transfer projects - Future Melbourne - in 2007.
This is an exciting and historic partnership between the City of Melbourne and the University that will lead to the development of a strategic 10-year vision for our city.
Dr Jane Goodall DBE, United Nations Messenger of Peace – one of many world leaders who spoke publically at the university during 2006.
what will growing esteem mean for prospective
students?
The Melbourne Model is designed to provide a rich
and challenging educational experience
19
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
melbourne aims to attract the best and the brightest students from all walks of life, regardless of their financial circumstances.
The Melbourne Model is designed to provide a rich and challenging educational experience. This will offer students the skills and expertise they need to be leading contributors in a future where knowledge boundaries are more permeable, professional practice requires cross-cultural and multidisciplinary understanding, and knowledge and technology are rapidly renewed.
As professional education moves to graduate degrees, Melbourne students will have the advantage of studying as part of a mature graduate cohort with common career direction and genuine interest in the discipline.
For prospective students Melbourne will offer:
•
A more considered approach to merit-based selection into professional programs. Generally, graduate-level entry will mean that student selection into professional education is based primarily on undergraduate performance and aptitude. It will no longer rely solely on Year 12 performance at school;•
Scope for pre-selection into professional graduate programs, where outstanding Australian school leavers seek a ‘guaranteed’ pathway into a chosen profession, and continue to excel as undergraduates;•
Wider access for disadvantaged students, supported by an expanded range of University scholarships; and•
Increased Commonwealth support for students in professional programs, with access to public subsidies of the kind available to undergraduates.the Melbourne Model will offer students the skills and expertise they need to be leading contributors in the future
Scholarship winners (from left to right): Fei Wu, Lucinda Green, Samuel Rutter, Andrew Currie, Peter Tao, Stephen Muirhead, Andrew Korlos.
what students can expect from the Melbourne Experience
Students will benefit from a multi-disciplinary
curriculum with a strong international focus
21
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
once enrolled, students will benefit from a multi-disciplinary curriculum with a strong international focus, with one quarter of each student’s course of study drawn from outside their core discipline. All students will enjoy a rich and distinctive educational setting, characterised by:
•
A strong cohort experience, with a clear sense of intellectual community in a diverse student population;•
An enriched campus learning environment with access to new services and facilities;•
Direct exposure to leading research and knowledge transfer projects on campus;•
Opportunities for off-campus experience such as industry and community work placements, or international study;•
Opportunities to build interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and technological awareness and skills;•
Immediate access to the diverse and vibrant cultural life of Melbourne’s inner city; and•
Greater international alignment and recognition of Melbourne degrees.students will enjoy a rich and
distinctive educational setting
with many characteristics
what will growing esteem mean for university staff?
Dean of Arts, Professor Belinda Probert (centre), with Dean’s Teaching Award recipients, Associate Professor Philomena Murray (left) and Ms Marcelle Scott.
The strategy will create a better administrative
environment for supporting academic
programs and delivering student services
23
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
to be one of the finest universities in the world, Melbourne will be clearer about what its core disciplinary strengths are, and focus research effort in areas of relative advantage and importance.
Our institution will move toward a different student mix, with more graduate programs to ensure that our qualifications set national benchmarks and are well-recognised internationally.
We will develop better mechanisms for supporting knowledge transfer to extend the institution’s reach into communities and markets, and give academic forms of knowledge greater impact.
Implementing the Growing Esteem strategy – including the introduction of the Melbourne Model – will mean significant institutional change. Teaching patterns, for example, will alter over time to reflect changes in the student profile.
At Melbourne, staff communities are proud of their institution and care deeply about their work and each other. Many will find the opportunity to play new roles, develop new skills and create something different.
The University will provide transition funds over several years to support its people through the transition.
Recruitment, performance management and promotion criteria will reflect a new set of programs and priorities.
In time the strategy will create a better administrative environment for supporting academic programs and delivering student services.
Setting clearer priorities and ending the growth trend in student numbers will help create more manageable workloads for staff. This will enable them to commit more time and energy to the work that engages them most, and where they can make their best contribution.
Among the University of Melbourne’s U21 award recipients for 2006 are (from left) Ms Janette Hocking, Dr Bradley Potter, Mr Shaun Ewen and Ms Sally Eshuys.
what will growing esteem mean for life on campus?
The most visible sign of the University’s new direction will
be the appearance of new buildings
and facilities for staff and students
25
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
the most visible sign of the University’s new direction will be the appearance of new buildings and facilities for staff and students.
The first Student Learning Hub will be built around the Frank Tate Building. This zone on the Swanston Street side of the campus will be transformed into a 24-hour precinct that offers comfortable, flexible, well-serviced social and learning spaces.
Here students can search library references, read course materials, use computing, printing and internet facilities, and tap wireless networks on their laptops. Big screen information and entertainment facilities will help them keep their fingers on the pulse of campus life.
Learning hubs will encourage students to spend more time on campus, enjoy facilities designed for diverse needs, build stronger social and study relationships, and enrich the daily life of the University’s learning communities.
Elsewhere graduate programs in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce will move to a new learning centre, joining the Law School and Melbourne Business School in the University Square precinct.
This precinct will create an environment for studying business and law unmatched in Australia, with access to world class talent and state of the art facilities for students and staff.
The most visible sign of the University’s new direction will
be the appearance of new buildings and facilities for staff and students
learning hubs will encourage students to spend more time on campus, enjoy facilities designed for diverse needs, build stronger social and study relationships, and enrich the daily life of the university’s learning communities
New state of the art facilities for students will include a 24-hour precinct with comfortable, flexible, well-serviced social and learning spaces.
what will growing esteem mean
for policy-makers, alumni and wider communities?
Greater impact in research, a new benchmark in student
learning, and a new focus on knowledge transfer will
ensure the University continues to serve the greater good
27
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
the university of melbourne has occupied a central place in the cultural life of its city, state and nation for more than 150 years – and aims to play a growing role in shaping the nation’s future.
Greater impact in research, a new benchmark in student learning, and a new focus on knowledge transfer will ensure the University continues to serve the greater good. But it cannot do this alone. To make lasting contributions and compete in a global setting the University needs more resources to support its staff, facilities and services.
If the current long-term Australian trend of decline in public funding per student continues, the University will need greater freedom to set its own fees to reflect the real costs of provision. Australian students in turn should be properly supported to recognise the actual cost of study. This requires among other things an end to arbitrary caps on government loans and better support for self-funded students.
Beyond governments, there are other audiences the University must reach. It has an alumni community comprising over 200,000 people and will work to strengthen these networks both nationally and internationally.
Melbourne’s gifts and endowments are significant in Australian terms but small compared to the world’s leading universities. What might greater community and philanthropic support make possible? Friends and benefactors can help ensure that the University fulfils its aspirations and obligations as a public-spirited institution. Such support will enable the University to:
•
offer more scholarships to assist the best and brightest students and researchers;•
renew and improve learning facilities, student services and welfare support;•
finance critical, leading edge research programs with state of the art resources and equipment; and•
develop people, ideas and intellectual agendas that will influence Australian politics and government,business and the professions, science and research, the arts and civil society. Chancellor Ian Renard with Kay and John de Wijn at the 2007 Chancellor’s Circle Reception.
The Chancellor’s Circle is the name given to our community of generous benefactors who demonstrate leadership and commitment to the University of Melbourne through annual gifts.
what will growing esteem mean for the future?
One challenge will be to widen expectations about
the role of higher learning in the life of the nation
the idea of a university built around more targeted research, graduate schools and knowledge transfer is a major departure from Australian custom and practice.
One challenge will be to widen expectations about the role of higher learning in the life of the nation.
This argues for greater diversity within the Australian system.
Fortunately the University of Melbourne embarks on its strategy from a position of great strength.
It has a magnificent campus set in one of the world’s most livable cities, access to the best and brightest students, an enviable reputation in research and teaching and strong multilateral links in Australia and abroad.
The result is a vibrant and multi-cultural intellectual milieu.
Thanks to generations of support from graduates, industry and the public, the University already offers one of the most generous scholarship schemes in Australia, attracting talented students from around the globe.
As one of the world’s finest universities, Melbourne will remain grounded in one place, but with many points of entry to a world of ideas, expertise and possibilities.
melbourne has access to the best and brightest students, an enviable reputation in research and teaching, a magnificent campus set in one of the world’s most livable cities and strong multilateral links in Australia and abroad
Botswana Aids Melbourne (BAM) medical students, Sennye Mogale and Maxwell Nhlatho, with the ‘father and mother’ of the program, Professor Roger Short and Ms Margot Collins.
Eight Botswanan students study medicine at the University each year before returning home to do their internships.
29
The University of Melbourne Plan A Strategic Overview
