The University of Melbourne is a global leader in higher education. Across our campuses we convene brilliant minds from different disciplines and sectors to come together to address important questions and tackle grand challenges. In a disrupted world, that capacity has never been more important.
Our vision is to equip our students with a distinctive, future-facing education personalised around their ambitions and needs, enriched by global perspectives and embedded in a richly collaborative research culture. As active citizens and future leaders, our students represent our greatest contribution to the world, and are at the heart of everything we do.
We serve society by engaging with our communities and ensuring education and research are inspired from the outset by need and for the benefit of society, while remaining committed to allowing academic freedom to flourish. In this, we remain true to our purpose and fulfil our mission as a public-spirited organisation, dedicated to the principles of fairness, equality and excellence in everything we do.
We strive for an environment that is inclusive and celebrates diversity.
Beyond our campuses we imagine an Australia that is ambitious, forward thinking and increasing its reputation and influence globally. We are committed to playing a part in achieving this – building on our advantageous location in one of the world’s most exciting cities and across the state of Victoria, in a region rapidly becoming a hub for innovative education, research and collaboration.
When Four Corners first broke the story of cruelty to Australian cows in Indonesian abattoirs, the Australian government initiated an “acceptable Exporter Supply Chain Assurance system” to better manage…
We are never completely contemporaneous with our present. History advances in disguise; it appears on stage wearing the mask of the preceding scene, and we tend to lose the meaning of the play. Each time…
In his recent Quarterly Essay, Mark Latham compared Labor parliamentary representation to the rotten boroughs of the 18th century. Though union membership has fallen away, suggested Latham, union officials…
Alexis de Tocqueville warned in his great book, Democracy in America, that the race problem could not be resolved, short of war between blacks and whites. It is the most dispiriting part of his brilliant…
“At the moment, we’ve got international graduates who are getting preference over Australian doctors in some states.” - Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton, National Press Club Address…
Seventeen minutes they gave it on Channel Seven’s evening news. A one-fact story: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have given birth to a boy (later named George), who will be third in line to the British…
In a recent speech at a combined Melbourne Energy Institute-Grattan Institute seminar at the University of Melbourne, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage Greg Hunt, MP, outlined…
Just when you thought being “tough on borders” couldn’t get any more serious, along comes the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders. It’s got all the right elements of a plan: it’s an operation (with…
Australia has some of the world’s most ancient soils, many of which grow delicious produce. In this series, “The good earth”, soil scientist Robert Edis has profiled some of those soils and the flavours…
A speaker’s social status can affect how we interpret their words, a German study has found. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, involved researchers showing the study’s 18 German participants…
What affects a Poll’s Margin of Error? There are two things that affect the margin of error (MOE). They are the poll’s sample size (n) and the estimated or assumed proportion (p); the estimated proportion…
Introduction I am a PhD student at the University of Melbourne’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Since 1998, I have had great interest in electoral politics, and I keenly follow both Australian…
A news report recently informed readers that the reason children from poorer backgrounds struggle is due to genetic “inherited abilities”. According to the article, a new Productivity Commission report…
New rules for alcohol labelling were discussed in Malaysia earlier this week by countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The proposed rules could stymie the introduction of effective health…
As Asian economies grow and corporate ventures become increasingly multinational, big challenges are emerging for corporate social responsibility and business ethics. But how can Australian corporations…
No Country for Old Men, according to my brother, is the one film that breaks the book-always-being-better rule. I remember one thing about seeing it. The precise wording of a text message I got while half-asleep…
If prime minister Kevin Rudd’s recent decision to process and then resettle all onshore asylum seekers in PNG is to be considered in any way a “success”, then it raises the question of what constitutes…
The first climate models were built on fundamental laws of physics and chemistry and designed to study the climate system. Now, the use of climate models is heated ground in the public discussion of our…
Nearly 80% of land in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak has been impacted by undocumented logging and forests clearing operations, a new study has found. The impacts included building new roads…
Shakespeare’s plays and cancer: two seemingly unrelated topics with an underlying common thread. The techniques that computational linguistics and computer scientists use to analyse the Bard’s works are…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne