From the Vice-Chancellor

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

Excellence and equity must be inseparable goals in realising Melbourne’s ambition to attract the best and brightest students – regardless of financial circumstances – and to offer them an education as good as any in the world.

That’s why – from the very start – the focus of the Melbourne Model has been on access and equity, on ensuring the University is fiercely meritocratic in its commitment to excellence.

The journey to the Melbourne Model began in 2005 when we asked our students, staff and graduates, and our wider community, to tell us about their expectation of a great university.

Their responses – expressed in the Melbourne Model – were remarkably consistent: a great university is a leader in research, closely connected to the professions and industry, dedicated to educating each generation to take its place in leading and contributing.

The Melbourne Model is the result of a long process of hard thinking and consultation across the university, of discussion at every level – with students, academics and professional staff, our alumni and supporters, our formal governance structures and Council.

The University early realised it must be mindful of its current 44 000 students. They will receive the same high standard of teaching and new teaching spaces, better student systems, and a renewed commitment to services focused on, and designed around, students.

But the Melbourne Model also gives two opportunities for a historic broadening of student diversity.

Firstly, the Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program at the heart of our new $100 million Melbourne Scholarships will recognise and develop the potential of talented Year 11 and 12 students at all Victorian secondary schools, encouraging them to consider university – be it Melbourne or another excellent university.

At graduate level we will not only draw on our own students but also graduates from other universities including some who may not have ever obtained a school-leaver place in a professional course at Melbourne.

We cannot assume that excellence and equity necessarily go together; it is possible to have one without the other.

But we cannot call ourselves a great university unless we inextricably link them to provide opportunities and support to the most capable of students.


Glyn Davis