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.
Reports of the death of the Murray Darling Basin food bowl are grossly exaggerated, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain. Farmers have been up in arms about plans to give more water to the environment, but…
The Federal Government has a strong tale to tell about the main health initiatives announced in last night’s budget. But there’s another, untold part of the story that belongs to the bigger narrative of…
The Budget: What does it have to do with tax reform? This year’s budget claims to “progress the government’s tax reform agenda, improving fairness and integrity in the tax system”. Does it? The short answer…
Decent people take comfort in the idea that money is not profoundly connected with happiness. There are statistics that suggest that as income increases happiness does not rise to an equal degree; and…
The Commonwealth and state governments share a portion of the revenue windfalls of a mining boom through income taxation and royalties. However, both the current arrangements, and proposed changes by the…
Apparently desalination plants are the answer to keeping Australian cities supplied with water. All that is required is to remove enough salt from an unlimited source of water to provide for each city’s…
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is set to deliver a tough budget. Julia Gillard remains committed to bringing government back to surplus by 2013. Budget day is an appropriate moment to ask how the…
Skimpy, scanty and suggestive attire have been one of the higher profile issues dividing feminists in recent years. In one camp, feminists of the second-wave, radical ilk have loudly decried the “sexualised…
Tonight’s budget will bring major policy announcements directed at improving labour market outcomes for unemployed persons and welfare recipients. In her speech at the Sydney Institute on April 13, Julia…
Competition between twins hit the headlines this week as, for the first time in AFL history, identical twins Brad and Chris Scott will coach different teams against each other on Saturday. Both twins played…
Former Australian of the Year Pat McGorry has campaigned to bring attention to distress suffered by many young people in our increasingly stressful society. Twenty six percent of young Australians experience…
The latest international comparisons show there is an urgent need to improve Australian student outcomes. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has measured the performance…
The world changes, but our categories fail to keep pace. We try to understand the new through the familiar, and become puzzled when things no longer make sense. Criticisms last week of the Melbourne Model…
Rod Keenan, The University of Melbourne; Peter Grace, Queensland University of Technology, and Snow Barlow, The University of Melbourne
Carbon farming - or biosequestration - seems to be the only climate change mitigation measure that both sides of politics can agree on. But its effectiveness may be sorely overstated. Biosequestration…
Osama bin Laden has long been a focus for conspiracy theorists with many claiming that he did not in fact play a role in the 9/11 attacks on the United States. That catastrophe was, so the theory goes…
History will record that Osama bin Laden was killed by American forces during Barack Obama’s presidency only days after he was forced to release his birth certificate to prove his eligibility in office…
It’s inescapable that when it rains a lot, floods occur. These events are largely beyond our control. We have to live with them, rather than live in the hope that we can eliminate them. And by using buy…
Rob Moodie, The University of Melbourne and Kate Taylor, The University of Melbourne
On Sunday, China banned smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars and other indoor spaces. But a lack of public understanding about the dangers of smoking in the nation of 300 million smokers…
Spending on health is the most rapidly expanding part of federal and state budgets, driven by chronic diseases, an ageing population and unrealistic expectations. The $100 billion spent this year on health…
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, hit back at reports yesterday that the company’s iPhones track the movements of its 100 million users. The charge was that Apple was storing a database of this information, to which…