Melbourne Model is based on educational grounds

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 4  30 April - 14 May 2007 ]

By Christina Buckridge

A physically constrained campus demands the ­University control its growth to assure students of the very best ­educational experience and high ­quality facilities.

The Melbourne Model is set on sound educational grounds; while financially responsible it is not a revenue-driven strategy, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, said in an interview after the launch of the Melbourne Model last week.

“We are investing in the Melbourne Model because we believe it will prepare our students to be highly-skilled, highly-focussed and highly-employable in today’s global environment,” he said. “If our objective was purely financial, we would simply keep building up our fee-paying student numbers.

“But our campus is physically constrained. In order to give all our students the very best educational experience with high quality facilities, we must control our current growth pattern.”

Professor Davis said there will be no overall reduction in Commonwealth supported places (CSPs) in 2008 though they will begin to be distributed differently – across undergraduate and graduate courses.

“We expect there will be just as many CSPs for commencing students across the six new degrees and 12 existing professional degrees as there have been across 90-plus courses in recent years. The 2008 commencing CSP intake should be around 3500.”

The University anticipates ENTER scores will not fluctuate significantly in 2008, although as these scores are influenced by demand it is impossible to accurately predict any changes.

Professor Davis expects undergraduate student numbers at Melbourne to rise over the next couple of years – as the University enrols students in the new undergraduate and graduate programs and teaches-out current students – before settling slightly below 40 000, several thousand below the present student population.

The eventual student profile will be 50/50 undergraduate and graduate compared to the current 70/30. The vast majority of places will continue to be CSPs with, for example, an anticipated average of 80 per cent CSPs across the graduate schools over the medium term.

In achieving the new profile, the University is making a conscious effort to broaden and diversify its student base.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Aca-demic) Professor Peter McPhee said the Melbourne Model makes the University more accessible – not less.

“Under the current system, very bright students who are socially or economically disadvantaged often cannot get the very high ENTER scores required to get into highly sought after professional degrees like law or medicine straight out of school,” he said.

“The Melbourne Model gives these students a ‘second shot’ – a chance to prove themselves as undergraduates – at Melbourne or another university – and then come here to do one of our professional graduate degrees.”

To encourage broader undergraduate participation, the University’s new Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program will identify and encourage talented students at all Victorian secondary schools to go on to university – hopefully many to Melbourne.

A new pathway has been designed for non-school-leavers including TAFE graduates. The University has set itself an ambitious target of 100 enrolments for each of the next few years.

The University’s Access Melbourne and Access Scholarships program – now in its third year at undergraduate level – will be extended to the new professional graduate degrees to make sure disadvantaged students get a fair go.

Professor Davis said the University has planned carefully to maintain a steady flow of graduates from professional courses over the transitional years to minimise any impact the move to the Melbourne Model may have in key professional workforce areas.

Dean of Medicine, Professor James Angus, said medicine will continue to graduate 330 medical graduates each year throughout the transition to provide the community with doctors.

In teaching, Dean of Education, Professor Field Rickards, says the University is working closely with the Victorian Department of Education and Training to ensure a steady flow of high quality teaching graduates over the transition period. “The new Master of Teaching will eventually produce around 650 graduates a year,” he says.

Claims that the Melbourne Model will give students less choice are ­firmly refuted by the Chair of the Board of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Loane Skene.

“On the contrary, all undergraduates will have access to a broader choice of subjects as they will do one-quarter of their studies outside their core program. All students will have access to specially designed University breadth subjects bringing together expertise on the big questions like climate change from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences,” she said.

Peter McPhee believes there is a misconception that Melbourne Model undergraduate degrees will not be challenging.

“There is nothing further from the truth – as anyone who looks at the course information for these degrees would clearly see,” he said. “They are not ‘generalist’ degrees – they are well-designed courses with depth of discipline and breadth of content to challenge today’s students and produce excellent outcomes for employment or further study.”