The University of Melbourne Degrees

Logo of the University of Melbourne

Founded in 1853, The University of Melbourne (informally Melbourne University or simply Melbourne) is  Australia’s second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. The University of Melbourne is an Australian public or non-private research university located in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. As of 2015, Times Higher Education ranking ranks Melbourne University as 33rd in the world,  and while the QS World University Rankings ranked the university 31st in the world. According to globally reputed ranking QS World University Subject Rankings 2015, the University of Melbourne is ranked fifth in the world for Education, eighth in Law, thirteenth in Computer Science & IT, thirteenth in Arts and Humanities,  fourteenth in Dentistry and eighteenth in Medicine.

The University of Melbourne's main campus is situated in Parkville, an inner suburb north of the Melbourne central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria. Melbourne is a sandstone university and a member of the Group of Eight, Universitas 21 and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. Since 1872 various residential colleges have become affiliated with the university. There are 12 colleges located on the main campus and in nearby suburbs offering academic, sporting and cultural programs alongside accommodation for Melbourne students and faculty.

Melbourne comprises 11 separate academic units and is associated with numerous institutes and research centres, including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the Grattan Institute. Amongst Melbourne's 15 graduate schools the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School and the Melbourne Medical School are particularly well regarded. Through these units, schools, colleges and research centers, academic courses & degrees are operated. For years, Melbourne offers online accredited degrees, and direct online degrees to satisfy global needs.

Melbourne has several alumni including seven Nobel laureates, five governors-general and four Australian prime ministers graduated from Melbourne. These alumni are the most any Australian university. 

Academics

The university has 11 academic units, some of which incorporate a graduate school. The overall attrition and retention rates at the university are the lowest and highest respectively in Australia. The university has one of the highest admission requirements in the country, with the median ATAR of its undergraduates being 94.05 (2009). Furthermore, The university continued to attract outstanding students; for example, 50% of the Premier's VCE Top All-Round High Achievers enrolled at the University of Melbourne.

According to the 2009 Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, Melbourne was then the only Australian university to rank in the top 30 in all five core subject areas with three subject areas ranked in the top 20.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have published a paper, ‘Vocational education's variable links to vocations’, that "considers the roles that tertiary education qualifications, in particular mid-level qualifications, play in assisting their graduates to gain entry to and progression in work and how they may be strengthened".

Research

Melbourne University claims that its research expenditure is second only to that of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).[29] In 2010 the university spent $813 million on research. In the same year the university had the highest numbers of federal government Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) and International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS), as well as the largest totals of Research Higher Degree (RHD) student load (3,222 students) and RHD completions (715).

Campus

Residential colleges

Melbourne University has 12 residential colleges in total, seven of which are located in an arc around the cricket oval at the northern edge of the campus, known as College Crescent. The other five are located outside of university grounds.

The residential colleges aim to provide accommodation and holistic education experience to university students.

Most of the university's residential colleges also admit students from RMIT University and Monash University, Parkville campus, with selected colleges also accepting students from the Australian Catholic University and Victoria University.

Libraries

The Melbourne University Library has three million visitors performing 42 million loan transactions every year. The general collection comprises over 3.5 million items including books, DVDs, photographic slides, music scores and periodicals as well as rare maps, prints and other published materials. The library also holds over 32,000 e-books, hundreds of databases and 63,000 general and specialist journals in digital form.

The libraries include:

·         Baillieu Library (arts and humanities)

·         Brownless Biomedical Library

·         Eastern Resource Centre (ERC)

·         Giblin Eunson Library (business, economics and education)

·         Law Library

·         Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library (formerly VCA Library)

·         Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library

·         Melbourne School of Land and Environment Library (Burnley, Creswick, Dookie)

·         Veterinary Science Library

Other campuses

The university has four other campuses in metropolitan Melbourne at Burnley, Southbank, Hawthorn and Werribee.

The Burnley campus is where horticultural courses are taught.  Performing arts courses are taught at the Southbank campus. Commerce courses are taught at the Hawthorn campus. Veterinary science is taught at the Werribee campus.

In regional Victoria, the Creswick and Dookie campuses are used for forestry and agriculture courses respectively. They previously housed several hundred residential students, but are now largely used for short courses and research. The Shepparton campus is home to the Rural Health Academic Centre for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

The university is a part-owner of the Melbourne Business School, based at Parkville campus, which ranked 46th in the 2012 Financial Times global rankings.

The Melbourne Curriculum

The University of Melbourne is unlike any other university in Australia in the fact that instead of offering specialized undergraduate degrees the university instead, offers nine generalized 3 year degrees:

·         Bachelor of Arts

·         Bachelor of Agriculture

·         Bachelor of Biomedicine

·         Bachelor of Commerce

·         Bachelor of Environments

·         Bachelor of Fine Arts

·         Bachelor of Music

·         Bachelor of Oral Health

·         Bachelor of Science

The change and the resulting curriculum is often referred to as the "Melbourne Model". The University then offers postgraduate courses(including the professional-entry master's degrees) which are more specialized which follow on from their undergraduate degree.

The "Melbourne Model" was implemented under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis in 2008.

In 2007, Melbourne University aimed to offer 75% of graduate places as HECS (with the remaining 25% being full fee paying).

Professional-entry master's degrees

A number of professional degrees are available only for graduate entry. These degrees are at a masters level according to the Australian Qualification Framework,[50] but are named "masters" or "doctorate" following the practice in North America. The professional degrees are:

·         Juris Doctor

·         Doctor of Medicine

·         Doctor of Dental Surgery

·         Doctor of Optometry

·         Doctor of Physiotherapy

·         Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

·         Master of Animal Science

·         Master of Architecture

·         Master of Applied Linguistics

·         Master of Landscape Architecture

·         Master of Biotechnology

·         Master of Engineering

·         Master of Environment

·         Master of Education

·         Master of Forest Science

·         Master of Nursing Science

·         Master of Property and Construction

·         Master of Public Policy and Management

·         Master of Social Work

·         Master of Teaching

·         Master of Urban Horticulture

·         Master of Urban Planning

·         Master of Urban Design

·         Master of Food Science