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Ancora Imparo, February, 2008

20 February 2008

I trust that everyone has returned refreshed by the Christmas break. Although many of us have been fortunate to have some holiday and family time over January, for others it has been an extraordinarily busy time.

An exceptional storm selectively affecting the Clayton Campus on the last day of the university year at 4 p.m. on December 20 led to significant damage to over 80 buildings on the Clayton Campus. I would like to acknowledge the superb efforts of the Facilities and Services team in restoring the Clayton Campus to working order in time for the commencement of the university year. Many staff worked tirelessly over the Christmas break to achieve this outcome.

Particular tribute should also be paid to the staff involved in the processes of recruitment and selection of students, both at the central administrative level of the University and in the Faculties and Campuses. These activities have been carried out very efficiently by the highly expert teams involved and the outcomes have been very positive for Monash University.

Despite a substantial fall in demand for university places in Victoria, the demand for Monash University remained strong. For the second year in a row, Monash was the most popular university in the State as indicated by the number of first preferences for our courses. Our new degree in Architecture, as well as offerings Law and Engineering, were particularly popular. In fact, with a 'Clearly-in ENTER' score of 91.3, Engineering accepted students with a cut-off score more than five points above any other Engineering program in Victoria. At the same time, all of the programs in the Faculty of Law were stand-outs, with the ENTER score for Law single degrees rising to 99.3 and double degrees involving Law ranging from 99.05 to 99.5. Demand for places in the new Graduate Entry Medical Course at our Gippsland Campus was also very strong.

Demand from international students has also remained very buoyant and despite capping the number of students in the most popular courses in Business and Economics, our overall international student targets will be comfortably reached.

During January I visited the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Like Monash University, it is celebrating its Golden Jubilee and to mark this event it held a Vice-Chancellors' Conclave with university VCs/Presidents from 27 universities around the globe taking part. The theme of the Conclave was international education and research collaborations. It gave a chance to compare notes with universities in the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia.

One point was abundantly clear. Australia must improve the resourcing of our universities if we are to remain competitive. One comparison will be sufficient to demonstrate this. Washington University, St Louis is not regarded as an especially privileged or rich university in comparison with the "Ivy League". Yet with a student headcount of 12,000 it has an annual budget of US$2b, a student:staff ratio of 2:1 and an endowment of US$7b. Comparable figures for Monash University are a student headcount of 55,000, an annual budget of A$1.3b, a student:staff ratio of 20:1 and Foundation holding A$270m. Of course Washington University's endowment pales into insignificance compared with Harvard's which is over US$30b. It illustrates the necessity for the "Education Revolution" foreshadowed by the Rudd Government to translate into a substantial increase in university funding and I will use my position as the Chair of Universities Australia to try to achieve this.

Following the Conclave, the first meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council of our joint Research Academy with IITB was held. It was chaired by Mr Narayana Murthy, the renowned founder of Infosys. Arrangements for the Academy are proceeding well and it should prove a very effective way for us to engage with the excellent research and research students in India and to tap into substantial industry funding.

I then visited the University of Sharjah for a meeting of the Board of Trustees, presided over by the Ruler of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi. It gave me an opportunity to see the progress made by the Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy both established under contract by Monash University and now functioning extremely well. The Vice-Chancellor for Medical Colleges Affairs, Dr Hossan Hamdy will be visiting Monash University next month and a warm and collaborative relationship has continued. Negotiations with the Ruler are proceeding in relation to establishing a Sharjah Chair of Islamic Studies at Monash University.

In December, David Pitt as Chair of the Board of Monash IVF oversaw the sale of Monash University's shareholding in the company to ABN-AMRO with a return of $100m to Monash University. This is a superb outcome and represents one of the most successful examples of commercialization of IP developed in a university in Australia. $4m of the proceeds will be used towards the funding of The Carl Wood Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (with another $1m to be raised from philanthropy) and the remaining money will build the funds in the Foundation allowing an extra $5m to be donated to the University from the Foundation each year to be used to support our capital development program.

I am looking forward to a most exciting and productive year for Monash in 2008. The 50th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Monash University Act in the Victorian Parliament promises to be a year in which Monash University makes further progress in achieving excellence in education and research and continues its remarkable contribution to Victoria, Australia and the world.