News

VCE high-achievers win University of Melbourne’s prestigious National Scholarships

Media Release, Monday 17 December 2007

Nineteen high-achieving Victorian Year 12 students – all with ENTER scores of 99.9 and above –today accepted 2008 Melbourne National Scholarships from the University of Melbourne.

The students were offered the prestigious Scholarships from the University of Melbourne after the release today of 2007 VCE results.

All the winners have chosen the University’s exciting New Generation degrees which are being introduced as part of the Melbourne Model in 2008.

The Scholarship winners will be available for a photo call at the University’s Old Quadrangle today from 1.45pm. Details below.

The scholarships are offered to the best and brightest Australian students who achieve the requisite tertiary entrance rank, and who have put a University of Melbourne course as their first preference for 2008.

The scholarship winners are:

Joshua Anderson (Penleigh And Essendon Grammar, 99.95, Bachelor of Arts)
Yonatan Cukierman (Mount Scopus Memorial College, 99.95, Bachelor of Commerce)
Jack Hywood (Melbourne Grammar School, 99.95, Bachelor of Science)
Sophie Kearney (St Catherine’s School, 99.9, Bachelor of Science)
Angela Kittikhoun (St Monica’s College, 99.9, Bachelor of Commerce)
Jack Lonnborn (Trinity Grammar School, 99.95, Bachelor of Arts)
Dean Marcus (Mount Scopus Memorial College, 99.9, Bachelor of Commerce)
Fer-Lene Ooi (East Doncaster Secondary College, 99.9, Bachelor of Biomedicine)
Jason Perri (Haileybury College, 99.9, Bachelor of Commerce)
Vivienne Petroff (Camberwell Girls Grammar School, 99.95, Bachelor of Commerce)
Joshua Pitcher (St Kevin’s College Toorak, 99.9, Bachelor of Biomedicine)
Dean Rosenberg (Mount Scopus Memorial College, 99.95, Bachelor of Arts)
Benjamin Russell (Camberwell Grammar School, 99.9, Bachelor of Science)
Ross Tan (Camberwell Grammar School, 99.95, Bachelor of Arts)
Timothy Trott (Melbourne High School, 99.9, Bachelor of Science)
Peter Willis (Xavier College, 99.95, Bachelor of Arts)
Rebecca Wood (St Catherine’s School, 99.9, Bachelor of Science)
Katherine Yang (Firbank Grammar School, 99.9, Bachelor of Arts)
Gary Zhang (Melbourne High School, 99.9, Bachelor of Commerce)

In addition to celebrating his scholarship win, Gary Zhang, 18, is also celebrating his birthday. It will also be a historic day for Joshua Anderson and Angela Kittikhoun, who will become the first National Scholarship recipients who are also Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars.

There was also one National Medicine Scholarship Winner: Derrick Ha, Haileybury College, 99.95, MBBS/B.Med.Sci.

For successful Victorian VCE and International Baccalaureate (IB) students, the University provides a HECS-exempt Commonwealth supported place and an annual allowance of $5000 for the duration of the undergraduate degree.

Melbourne National Scholarships are nationally-recognised awards, highly-sought after by outstanding students from across Australia. In 2007 there were over 140 National Scholarship holders at the University of Melbourne.

Later this week recipients of the Melbourne Access Scholarships, for students who have experienced ongoing difficulties during their school years, will be announced. The scheme provides prospective students with the opportunity to explain the ongoing circumstances that affected their chance of gaining a place at the University.

Scholarship winners at the University of Melbourne – ranked number 27 in the world, and number one in Victoria – will be sharing in the $100 million scholarship fund for future students, announced at the launch of the University’s Melbourne Model in April.

Acting Vice-Chancellor and University Provost, Professor Peter McPhee says the University is delighted that the high-achieving Melbourne National Scholarship students are choosing to study New Generation programs.

"This is a terrific endorsement of the quality of these new programs," he said.

"There has never been a more exciting time for students to study at Melbourne and in 2008 our scholarship winners joining a broad-ranging cohort of students undertaking New Generation degrees, the first of their kind in Australia, as the University begins the roll-out the Melbourne Model.

“The New Generation degrees will lead directly to excellent employment opportunities or on to professional graduate programs which provide Australia’s best and brightest students with a more-focused, intense and professionally-relevant degree.”

“The Melbourne Model will provide a global education, aligned with that offered by the world’s top universities.” The latest Times Higher Education Supplement rankings put University of Melbourne graduates as the most employable in Australia and No 10 in the world.


For more information on the Melbourne Scholarships Program, please go to www.services.unimelb.edu.au/scholarships/ugrad/future/national.html.

PICTURE AND INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

WHEN: 1.45 pm on Monday 17 December 2007

WHERE: Old Quadrangle cloisters, adjacent to the South Lawn, University of Melbourne
See map: www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/CampusMaps/Parkville.pdf