Message from the Vice-Chancellor and President

Alternative versions:

• Windows media (wmv 9 mb)
• Quicktime Video (mpeg4 9 mb)

Text transcript

What are your aspirations for Monash in five years into the future?

Monash is a fantastic university. Things have been achieved at Monash over the last decade that would have been unthinkable for an Australian university even a short time ago. It's consolidated its presence as a really great research university, and the core research strengths at Monash are among the best in the country. In the major areas of need to the Australian community, in some of the major areas including health, industry, engineering, the social sciences, arts and humanities, and perhaps even more prominent in terms of today's debate, the emerging areas of sustainability, climate, clean energy, Monash is without peer, in my view, in terms of our academic strengths.

Now, what more can be done is what we have to ask ourselves. Monash is in a position now in its evolution where so much is being achieved, and there's so many opportunities for us, that we need to think very very carefully about the way forward. If Monash fulfils its potential, it will be the greatest university in this part of the world, and I don't mean just in Australia , in the years ahead, but that means people will have to be able to say, with absolute clarity, what is special about Monash.

Now, some things already stand out. Our breadth within Australia, the fact that we're a Group of Eight university, with major regional engagement is special, our international engagement with wonderful fully operated campuses around the world, which are real university campuses around the world in every way, is very special because it takes a decade or more to build a campus of that type, so another institution starting now is at least ten years behind us. Our breadth of education is special, our approach to double degrees, to some of the innovations around the Monash Passport.

Now what we need to do a little bit more is probably focus on, more than we have now, on the areas of innovation, where we have critical mass, where we want to lead the world in, so that in five years people can say look, the three or four great universities in the sustainability area, Monash is one of them. In the area of health societies and healthy aging, a massively important area for the Australian community, Monash is the most productive university in the country. And I don't want to enunciate every theme, but we'll need to more and more have four or five themes that anybody in Australia who's interested in the tertiary sector, and attuned people around the world, think of Monash, and they think of four or five things that we lead in. Now we're well on the way to that but we're not quite there. In five years I think we will be there.

Monash University's stated values also reflect our commitment. Our values include diversity and fairness alongside excellence and innovation. And diversity is an intrinsic part of Monash. As an international university with a physical presence in Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, we have strong diversity across our student, staff and alumni communities, and we value this enormously.