The Melbourne Model 2008 – the future of Australian education
Media Release, Tuesday 17 April 2007
The University of Melbourne today unveiled full details of the new Melbourne Model curriculum, which will be underpinned by a scholarship program of more than $100 million over three years to ensure the best and brightest students are able to attend the University, irrespective of their financial circumstances. The Model will be promoted through a major advertising initiative challenging prospective students to ‘dreamlarge’.
“The Melbourne Model will build on the University of Melbourne’s long history of excellence in research and teaching, to ensure our students receive an outstanding, internationally-recognised education,” Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis said at today’s launch at the University’s Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute.
“The University of Melbourne wants to be judged by international standards and to be counted among the world’s finest universities.”
The Melbourne Model is a distinctively Australian response to a well-established international trend in higher education found in North America and now in Europe and increasingly in Asia.
The Model introduces six new undergraduate degrees with both breadth and depth – in Arts, Biomedicine, Commerce, Environments, Music and Science – followed by employment, a professional graduate degree, or a research degree such as a PhD.
The Melbourne Model also brings the graduate school experience to Australia, providing more intense and professionally relevant degrees. In 2008 a number of professional degrees will move to graduate level – including law, architecture, forestry, secondary teaching, and nursing. This list will grow in the coming years to include medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy and engineering, among others.
The Melbourne Scholarship program – in excess of $100M - will benefit more than 8000 students over three years. Scholarships will be awarded to Australian and international students in undergraduate, professional graduate and research higher degree programs.
Professor Davis said that fundamental to Melbourne’s aspiration to be one of the finest universities in the world is its desire to provide an excellent university education to Australia’s best and brightest, regardless of their financial situation.
The Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars’ Program – a landmark initiative designed to reward academic excellence and leadership at every secondary school throughout the State – will be a key feature of the University’s significantly-expanded Melbourne Scholarships program. Benefits of the Program will begin in Year 11, with scholars who achieve a minimum ENTER score of at least 95 (or 90 in the case of under-represented schools) in Year 12 guaranteed a place in a new Melbourne Model undergraduate degree and a $2500 allowance for study abroad. Students from outside the Melbourne metropolitan area will receive an additional $2500 to assist in relocation or other expenses.
Other highlights of the scholarships program include:
• All Australian school-leavers enrolling at Melbourne with a 99.9 ENTER or equivalent will be eligible for a prestigious Melbourne National Scholarship – a HECS-free place and $5000 annual allowance for three years (or six in the case of medicine).
• In 2008, all Victorian school-leavers with an ENTER above 98 who enrol in a new Melbourne Model degree will receive a one-off $2500 award to help with HECS, relocation or other expenses.
• From 2009, a minimum of 800 students each year will be supported by a Melbourne Abroad Scholarship to undertake part of their undergraduate degree at a university overseas.
Professor Davis today welcomed Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop’s support for the University’s commitment to access and equity, through her in-principle agreement to allow the new professional graduate degrees to offer a significant number of Commonwealth Supported Places (i.e. HECS places) – a minimum of 50% in each of the new professional graduate degrees, with significantly more in many degrees.
“Excellence and equity are inseparable. Melbourne will welcome and support the best students, regardless of their background or financial circumstances”, Professor Davis said.
“That is why we have introduced new scholarships, expanded our successful Melbourne Access program to students in the new professional graduate degrees, and worked with the Department of Education Science and Training to ensure we can offer HECS places in those programs.” As part of the commitment to equity, at least 20% of places in each Melbourne Model undergraduate and professional graduate degree will be set aside for students who have suffered prior educational disadvantage as a result of their social or economic circumstances.
The new University of Melbourne advertising campaign, dreamlarge, was made public for the first time today. Cinema-style advertisements feature striking imagery and a theme composed by a Victorian College of the Arts postgraduate music student and performed by an orchestra of students and staff from the University’s Faculty of Music and Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts.
Professor Davis said the advertising campaign will help to highlight the value of broadly-based education and, in particular, Melbourne’s exciting vision for higher education, as the University introduces the Melbourne Model.
“We want to bring the community along with us in making these big, exciting changes,” he said. “As the first Australian university to move to broader undergraduate degrees plus a graduate school model, Melbourne is breaking new ground in the higher education sector; it has put diversity in higher education on the public agenda.”
The new advertising campaign shows the depth and breadth of the University’s work, and encourages prospective students from across Australia and around the world to come to the University of Melbourne for an education that will equip them to be global citizens. It directs viewers to a new website - www.dreamlarge.edu.au - for detailed information about the Melbourne Model degrees.
The Melbourne Model has been welcomed by many leaders in government, business and the academic community including Minister Bishop, Federal Shadow Minister for Education Stephen Smith, Victorian Treasurer and Minister for Innovation, John Brumby, Victorian Minister for Skills, Education Services and Employment, Jacinta Allan, and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne John So. This means that the Melbourne Model enjoys the support of all three levels of government and both sides of politics.
Media enquiries:
Christina Buckridge 0412 101 316
Janine Sim-Jones 0400 893 378
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