Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo

Ancora Imparo, November 2006

The results of the ARC and NHMRC funding rounds for funding commencing in 2007 have recently been announced. This year has been a year where we have consolidated the greatly improved outcomes from the two previous years rather than repeating the stunning improvement in numbers of grants and the total income from the grants seen in the last two years.

There were notable successes in increasing NHMRC Project funding by 52 per cent and ARC Linkage grants by 75 per cent. Overall, Monash ranked third in Australia for all NHMRC funding announced and sixth for ARC funding. These were good outcomes, but it is important that we do maintain our momentum and further increase our applications and success rates in all categories of grants next year.

Congratulations to everyone who was successful, and commiserations to the 80 per cent or so of applicants who were unsuccessful. It is important for those of you who were not successful this time to learn from the feedback, get advice from others and submit an improved application next year. Do not be discouraged. All of us who have been involved in research have had to learn to be resilient in applying for grant support, given the vagaries of the funding system and the low overall success rate.

The ranking of the world's universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) has been published for 2006. It is pleasing that as these rankings mature, Monash University has retained its position in the top 40 universities. The ranking systems use arbitrary methodology and the THES uses subjective assessments by about 3000 academics from around the world, so the significance of the rankings must be viewed with some scepticism. But they do reflect the remarkably high international reputation that Monash University has achieved in the 48 years since it was conceived.

Along the same lines, the respected Economist Intelligence Unit has recently published its ranking of international MBAs. The Monash MBA was ranked as the 49th best in the world, which was the highest ranking for any Australian university and the second highest in Asia. Significantly, our MBA was ranked as the third best in the world in the important category of "personal development and educational experience". Again, while accepting the subjective nature of the ranking, everyone associated with this course is to be congratulated for their work in developing and delivering such a highly regarded program.

Many Monash academics receive rewards of various types, and it is invidious to single out individuals in this column. However, particularly noteworthy was the award of the Science Minister's Prize at the Annual Prime Minister's Prizes for Science to Associate Professor James Whisstock from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the School of Biomedical Sciences. This is the premier prize for life sciences, and it is the second time in three years that it has been awarded to a Monash scientist from this department following the success of Professor Jamie Rossjohn in 2004. Notably, both scientists use the synchrotron extensively in their work, so they will be greatly advantaged in their work when the Australian Synchrotron starts operating at Monash next year.

Finally, a word about education. Monash University ranked seventh in the grading for the learning and teaching quality in the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund for 2006 in the health category but outside the top 10 in the other three categories. These rankings are based on historical data for students completing in 2004, and our own MEQ data suggest that there has been a significant improvement in student evaluation of their learning experience since then. We must continue to focus on improving our performance in learning and teaching just as we are focusing on our performance in research. Excellence in education and in research are the twin peaks of what we are about, neither one nor the other more important, and each an absolute requirement if we are to be the type of university we aspire to be.

Professor Richard Larkins
Vice-Chancellor