<<Back            Contents            Next>>

Forty… and proud of it

Forty years ago, 363 keen students arrived at the doors of a brand new university in Melbourne’s south-east. Today, more than 44,000 people are studying at Monash University. ALLISON HARDING reports on the past – and what lies ahead in the next 40 years

Hit the fast-forward button to 2041. Just what will Monash University be like? Will students still gather on the expansive lawns of its various campuses? Still borrow books from the libraries? Still debate in tutorials? Or will it all be happening via a computer screen, probably in ways beyond our imagination?

Thankfully, the consensus seems to be that people will still be people and will still demand personal interaction – at least in some ways.

"People will always want at least a part of their engagement with universities to be face to face," says Monash vice-chancellor Professor David Robinson. "I suppose 2041 will be a further extension of the path we’ve taken from day one, which is to be always setting the pace, always being innovative."

Born out of a 1958 Act of the Victorian Parliament, Monash University opened its doors to its first students in March 1961. It was the second university in Victoria, after the University of Melbourne, and the 10th in Australia. It was also the first named after a person, rather than a city or a state. Melbourne was in dire need of another university in the late 1950s – in a rapidly growing city, there were far more applicants than available course places.

Monash historian Professor Simon Marginson says a  site in Caulfield was considered, but in the end, Clayton was chosen, partly because far more land was available.

"It was a chance to have a nice set of skyscrapers in the parkland, which was the early vision of the architecture of the site – skyscrapers in the 1960s were seen as beautiful and wonderful things," Professor Marginson explains.

At 80 years of age, Emeritus Professor John Legge is one of the originals. He accepted an invitation to apply for the position of professor of history at the new university in 1960 – but his recollections of the site’s earliest days are merely "mud and more mud".

"I remember my wife coming to collect me one day, coming towards me carrying two blocks of clay," he says. "When I asked her what they were, she replied, ‘my shoes’."

But despite the muddy surrounds, Professor Legge was thrilled to be involved from the ground floor. "It was a major university and there was a tremendous amount of excitement," he says.

Dr Jack McDonell, the former executive warden of the Halls of Residence and part-time physics lecturer, who arrived in 1961, agrees they were heady days. The first hall, Deakin, was opened "just in time" for the first residential – and mainly country – students of 1962.

"Deakin was actually the first university hall of residence where male and female students were housed together – it was a very radical move in those days," Dr McDonell says. "We had all types of dire warnings about what would eventuate."

Those early years were boom years for Monash and by 1971, more than 11,000 students were enrolled. They were also dramatic years. Student protests were rife as opposition to the Vietnam War grew. Arts graduate and activist Michael Hyde, who attended Monash from 1967 to 1971 en route to a career in teaching, has fond memories of the university.

"There was an urgency, a dynamism, about the place," he recalls. "It was both the time, and the fact it was a new university – I suppose the place was less traditional, didn’t yet have a reputation. I have no regrets about the time, I think it was superb, I think it really did change things."

The years spent at Monash had such an impact on Mr Hyde, who was arrested numerous times during protests, that he is now writing a novel drawing on those heady student days.

Andrew Knight, one half of the creative team who brought the ABC-TV smash hit ‘SeaChange’ to the world, strolled the halls of Monash from 1972 to 1975.

"Mostly what I remember from my years there … was a sense of freedom – to think politically, philosophically and abstractly," Mr Knight says. "There was constant exposure to seriously clever people and a great sense that somehow what I thought mattered."

The winds of change began whistling around Clayton campus in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Federal government policies encouraged multi-campus universities and, after debate, Monash eventually merged with Chisholm Institute of Technology, Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education, and the Pharmacy College.

Globalisation became the buzzword in the last decade of the 20th century, with the federal government increasingly preoccupied with Australia’s place in the international sphere.

Monash responded, offering distance education programs, recruiting international students, particularly from Asia, opening campuses in Malaysia and South Africa, and establishing centres in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Today, recognised throughout the world for its groundbreaking research in many fields, Monash strives to build a culture of innovation. 

Perhaps one of its best known successes is pioneering the in-vitro fertilisation program 30 years ago, which produced Australia’s first test-tube baby and which marked a new frontier for reproductive technology and medicine. Monash reproductive research is also helping preserve populations of endangered species, such as the black rhinoceros and the greater bilby.

Also on the medical front, pharmacy researchers have brought welcome relief to influenza sufferers with the development of the anti-flu drug Relenza.

It will never be known how many lives have been saved by work of the Monash University Accident Research Centre, which investigates accident trends ranging from backyard pool drownings to car accidents. And environmental issues concern the Green Chemistry Centre, which is at the forefront of finding ways to make chemical processes and engineering projects more environ-mentally friendly.

Professor Robinson believes Monash University will be a leading global institution in the years ahead.

"I have no doubt that in another 40 years, Monash University will have a major and flourishing campus in every continent, and I have no doubt we shall have a network of centres and colleges around the world and be one of the world’s leading global universities," he says.

 <<Back            Contents            Next>>