An ambitious agenda has set the University of Melbourne on a path to world-class university status.

The University of Melbourne has set a bold agenda for developing its profile as Australia’s first truly world-class university.

Already Australia’s leading research university, the University of Melbourne recognises the importance of Australia having at least one university competitive with the likes of Cambridge or Harvard. Melbourne’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert is determined that the University of Melbourne will be the one, and the ‘Melbourne Agenda’ is the blueprint for transformation.

A winning strategy
Universities worldwide face a decline in public funding, and Australian universities are no exception. Over the past five years, Melbourne has been working hard to replace falling levels of public funding with a steadily rising stream of non-government income, which now accounts for more than 43% of total annual University income.

Under Alan Gilbert’s leadership, the University of Melbourne has embarked on a range of pro-active commercial ventures designed to increase the financial self-reliance necessary to secure the University’s position as a major player in the global knowledge economy.

This strategy is proving a winning one. For instance, the University has more than ‘doubled its money’ on A$48m of non-government funds it has invested since 1998 in a range of self-reliance strategies related to higher education and research.

The University has launched an impressive stable of entrepreneurial ventures including Melbourne Enterprises International, Melbourne IT, Melbourne University Private, Uniseed Limited, and its partnership in the exciting global online education operation ‘U21global’ – a joint venture between the global university alliance Universitas 21 and the US corporation Thomson Learning Corporation.

Melbourne’s triumphs in such ventures are reflected in the success of its investment of just A$350,000 in its commercial IT arm, Melbourne IT, which returned around A$80m when floated by the University.

Benefiting from this success is a major University initiative – the Bio21 Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology – which will create a critical mass of the University’s biotechnology‘platform technologies’ for the commercial development of cutting-edge biomedical research. The new institute will be the centrepiece of the A$400m Bio21 biomedical precinct, where the University is partnering leading research institutes, the Victorian state government and industry.
Melbourne University Private is the University of Melbourne’s wholly-owned, commercially-based university, through which the public university can provide advanced education, training, research and consultancy services to business, industry, and international and government agencies. The private university has contracted to provide millions of dollars in teaching and training to Asia and the Middle East.

The University is also a partner in Uniseed, Australia’s first university-based venture capital fund.
Through its membership of U21- global, the University will offer quality higher education online, and at an affordable price, to the 85% of the world where traditional solutions are inadequate. There are now 32m people (100m in 10 years) qualified for higher education but for whom there is not a university place available.

Cutting-edge knowledge
The Vice-chancellor explains that these initiatives are part of a long-term strategic commitment to building a well-resourced international university that can realistically aspire to attracting and retaining world-class teachers and researchers and providing them with world-class research infrastructure and academic working conditions.

“We want to make our University home to many of the best minds and ideas in the world,” says Professor Gilbert. “We want to create and maintain a scholarly culture where researchers working at the cutting edge of knowledge are also teachers.”

The best minds in the world do not come cheaply. However, Professor Gilbert has devised an innovative solution: a programme of ‘Eminent Fellows’ who spend two months each year working at Melbourne. Two Nobel Laureates – Professor Peter Doherty and Professor Bert Sakmann – have been part of the programme for some years. This year, Professor Doherty will set up a research laboratory in the University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

University of the Year
The international success of the University’s entrepreneurial strategy has been recognised with the award of the 2001-2002 Good Universities Guide’s University of the Year, for Melbourne’s international standing. This accolade confirms that proactive, income-generating activities and commitment to education and research of the highest quality can ensure a prosperous future for the University.

Website: www.unimelb.edu.au