Comments on: Is Monash Uni introducing the “Melbourne Model” by stealth?

By: eliza

eliza — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

‘Melbourne model is the only one which is financially viable for our leading universities’.

What is the Australian National University (which has a balanced range of options for undergrads- including combined courses, or straight law/ science/ economics etc.), then? Chopped liver?

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

so you’re a self-admitted conspiracy theorist then Adam?

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Victorian students may be voting with their feet and going under-grad at Monash, but they are mistaken. Having studied both here in Australia (UQ) and in North America (UBC) I can assure students the Melbourne model provides a better education, with less pitfalls for young school leavers.

While it takes a little longer, the Melobourne model provides a better education with stronger essential skills being developed as an undergrad and also reducing the costs of poor course selection on young school leavers. The Americans have the best quality unis in the world and all the best adopt this model.

I suspect that over time Melbourne will return to its place as the most sought after uni for undergrads as the advantages of its model become known to the mums, dads, and school leavers out there.

By: Nici

Nici — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Hmmmm. There is a fairly frequent shuttle bus running between the two campuses and students already study at both locations.

The Caulfield campus is almost right on top of Caulfield railway station which would make it very attractive to many students.

By: Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Schwab is basically right, but his timing is out and hence his conspiracy theory is wrong. The ‘Melbourne model’ was first proposed in a discussion paper released in July 2005, after Davis joined the University of Melbourne but well before Rudd became federal Labor’s leader on 4 December 2006.

The discussion paper makes clear the financial motive for Melbourne’s move of professional education to graduate programs: at that stage the Australian Government limited domestic full fee paying places in undergraduate programs to 25% of HECS places, while there was no limit on the proportion of domestic full fee paying places in postgraduate programs. The other consideration was to increase the university’s proportion of graduate students.

Many other universities offer some professional programs as graduate-only programs. The University of Adelaide tried graduate-only entry to law in the mid 1990s but ended it because all the St Peter’s kids were going to Flinders University: there’s no point spending a fortune on getting your kid a high tertiary entrance rank unless it guarantees entry to an elite university program. Flinders was the first university in Australia to offer graduate-only medicine, but that has since been followed by several others.

Schwab is probably right to observe that the trend is growing. It will be interesting to see how far the University of Western Australia will go in this direction. Its deputy vice chancellor (academic) Don Markwell, who was warden of the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College until 2007, advocated the liberal arts and sciences strongly in an options paper last year, but he will face strong resistance at the deeply conservative UWA.

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The University of Melbourne (2005) Growing esteem. Choices for the University of Melbourne. A discussion paper that invites involvement and response, July, http://growingesteem.unimelb.edu.au/2005consultation/docs/vcconsultation.pdf