Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo

Ancora Imparo, May 2006

In these days of decreased government funding of our universities in an environment that is more and more competitive, we must find ways to deliver more for our students and to achieve more in research for less cost. Collaboration between competitors is one way to achieve this. This was recognised in 1997, when the Vice-Chancellors of Monash and Melbourne universities established the Melbourne--Monash Protocol. Given the time that has elapsed since then, I and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Glyn Davis, decided to have a meeting to review the achievements of the protocol and to explore areas where we could extend the collaboration for mutual benefit. To these ends, a symposium was held on 24 April.

There have been some very definite outcomes directly resulting from the protocol. One has been the funding of joint proposals for projects using new technology for educational courseware. Thirty projects have been funded, and a thorough evaluation has recently been performed on completed projects. Although not all have proceeded on schedule, the projects evaluated had very good outcomes and are contributing to the educational programs of both universities. Pleasingly, almost all faculties have been involved. Another direct outcome has been cooperation between our libraries. An intercampus loans program and sharing of staff and resources in Asian studies have been developed as a result of the protocol. In administration, a program to allow members of one university to access the other university's staff development programs was developed. There has been steady use of this capability.

Research is an area where collaboration is more and more important, with the cost of infrastructure in the science and technology areas making it impossible for one university to be internationally competitive without sharing equipment and expertise. I am delighted that there are many areas of intense collaboration, perhaps best exemplified by the joint partnership of the two universities in the ARC Centres of Excellence where out of 11 awarded last year, two were led by Monash and two by Melbourne and of these four, all involved both universities. Of course, this may have had nothing to do with the existence of the protocol, although at least the presence of the protocol creates an enabling environment where it is clear that collaboration is encouraged.

To explore areas where we can extend collaboration, five concurrent sessions were held during the afternoon of 24 April. The areas were chosen because they were of mutual interest, and it was felt there were opportunities for more extensive collaboration. They were 'Water', 'Materials and Synchrotron Science', 'Health Services Research', 'Applied Philosophy' and 'Administration'. There was a lot of enthusiasm, and important outcomes were achieved in all areas. Small groups were established to take the proposals forward. Some general issues also emerged. One was that we need to develop clear protocols for joint PhD supervision and to streamline intellectual property agreements. It was also agreed that instead of each university building a reserve data management centre, we could use each other's capacity as the reserve. This will save several million dollars. Although not the major theme of this meeting, there are also clear advantages for our students in allowing better access by students from each university to coursework programs from the other university. This concept will be further developed.

The meeting was addressed at lunch-time by John Brumby, the Treasurer and the Minister for Innovation, Industry and Regional Development. He emphasised the power that would come from two of Australia's leading research-intensive universities working closely together.

Both universities will prosper if we can fully exploit the opportunities that will come from a collaborative approach in research, education and administration. We will remain in healthy competition, but we recognise that the real competition lies in the big world outside Victoria and Australia.

Richard Larkins
Vice-Chancellor