The University of Melbourne is an internationally recognised, research-intensive university with a strong tradition of excellence in teaching, research and community engagement spanning more than 160 years.
Its outstanding performance in international rankings puts the University of Melbourne at the forefront of higher education globally. It is ranked number 1 in Australia by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 28th worldwide. Melbourne’s position as Australia’s top University has also been reaffirmed in the 2013 Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings, in which it has moved up three places from last year, to equal 54th in the world and third in the Asia-Pacific.
The University is uniquely located on the fringe of the city of Melbourne’s central business district. It serves as a hub for the Parkville research precinct – one of the world’s leading centres of medical and biotechnological research – and is a vital part of surrounding neighbourhoods such as cosmopolitan Carlton.
About 50,000 of the best and brightest students from around the globe come to study at the University of Melbourne.
The family of Hop Lin Jong (who is pictured on the far left) at the wedding of her daughter, Ruby (third from right) in 1924. Ruby was murdered by her husband the following year.
Hop Lin Jong's arrival in Western Australia in 1901 was remarkable only because she was Chinese. Her life might have passed in obscurity if not for the murder of her daughter in 1925.
Augustus was Rome’s first emperor.
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Augustus's long line of high-profile admirers see him as a great statesman who brought peace to a Roman Republic long afflicted by civil wars. But how admirable was he, really?
A plaque on a house in St Petersburg that says: ‘Here the writer Lydia Korneievna Chukovskaya wrote Sophia Petrovna, a story about the Great Terror 1936-1938’.
Wikimedia Commons
Persecuted by Stalin, writers Lydia Chukovskaya and Anna Akhmatova endured threats, cold and starvation. And in an epic feat, Lydia memorised the poems of her friend that were too dangerous to commit to paper.
Théroigne de Mericourt, engraving after a painting by Auguste Raffet in 1817.
Wikimedia Commons
This frail and often hated woman became a passionate advocate of a woman's place in a democratic society before a tragic episode broke her.
Salida de la Tierra: los astronautas del Apolo 8 capturaron esta espectacular foto de la Tierra elevándose por encima del horizonte lunar mientras emergían desde detrás del lado oscuro de la Luna.
NASA
We all have the blinkers on when shopping with our ethics.
Earthrise: astronauts aboard Apollo 8 captured this spectacular photo of Earth rising above the lunar horizon as they emerged from behind the dark side of the Moon.
Image Credit: NASA
Fifty years ago people saw our planet from the outside for the first time.
A scene from the 1961 film West Side Story. The casting of an Australian performer as Maria in a local production of the musical was recently criticised for ‘white washing’ a story about a Puerto Rican immigrant.
The Mirisch Corporation,Seven Arts Productions
Our identity unquestionably shapes (and can limit) how we interact with the world. But it should not become the only foundation upon which we build our understanding of it.
Regardless of who wins next year’s federal election, it’s time for us to all get on the same page.
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2018 was a mixed bag for schooling policy in Australia, with new ministers, a new organisation and auspicious anniversaries. It’s worth reflecting on the year that’s been.
Cover of the menu for the AIF Christmas Dinner, Hotel Cecil, London, in 1916. Illustration by Fred Leist.
Museums Victoria collection, donated by Jean Bourke
Authentic assessment is perceived as being harder to outsource, and has been adopted by many Australian university teachers. But that doesn't mean students won't still cheat on them.
A simpler company tax system would collect more and could fund a lower rate.
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The budget looks good, for now. But the surge in taxable profits will subside as companies find ways to shift profits offshore. We've come up a better way to tax onshore what happens onshore.
As the year come to an end, all the polls are giving a significant two-party preferred lead to the federal Labor Party.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The latest Fairfax-Ipsos and Essential polls give a strong lead to Labor, with some interesting – and variable - detail on the attributes voters see in the leaders of the two major parties.
Delegates at the closing ceremony of the Katowice climate talks.
Marek Zimny/AAP Image
Three years after the Paris Agreement, negotiators have finally agreed (most of) the rules for its implementation. But there is still no way to compel countries to deepen their climate ambitions.
Some people just follow the social norm, whether it’s right or not.
Shutterstock/LENAIKA
An ACCC interim report is one of the most consequential documents for media policy in decades, while a government report finds both public broadcasters are acting in the public interest.
It’s easy to blame congestion on immigrants. But it’s really jobs that do it. People flock to where the jobs are, whether they are immigrants or not.
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The average consumerist suburban lifestyle is unsustainable. But what if affluent suburbanites and battlers alike ditch the rat race and embrace economic 'degrowth'? Here's how it might unfold.
A kangaroo finds refuge in a small patch of vegetation surrounded by a new housing estate.
Georgia Garrard
Expanding cities and farmland have created many small, often isolated patches of vegetation. Long seen as having limited ecological value, a new study shows these are vital for endangered species.