murdoch - a university for the 21st century

Murdoch University is an outstanding Australian university with top teaching rankings and research achievements.

Students clearly enjoy their time at Murdoch, both academically and socially. A fact we see recognised in our consistent five-star rating for Student Satisfaction from the Good Universities Guide.

Murdoch continues to maintain a healthy balance between top quality education and world-class research programs. Our research portfolio continues to expand, driven by outstanding success in attracting external funding and successfully completing research of great relevance to the national and international community. We are in the top eight Australian universities for income per staff member in these areas.

Research strengths range across all disciplines from games technology and interactive television through to socially significant areas such as community health and safety, Indigenous issues, and law and penal reform. Major strengths of Murdoch’s research – agricultural and veterinary biology, minerals processing and alternative energy – correlate directly with the key drivers of the WA economy. Researchers such as Professor Simon Mallal, winner of the 2005 Premier’s Prize for Achievement in Science for his work in HIV research, have received worldwide acclaim and attracted significant international funding.

Our pioneering initiatives in the commercialisation of research, such as the Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership (a venture capital project in collaboration with WA's largest non-government superannuation fund) and MurdochLink, are acknowledged templates that other institutions are now eagerly adopting.

Student demand is strong and reflects our distinctly student-centred approach, which promotes excellence and accessibility. Indeed, the celebration of our 30th birthday got off to a great start when we welcomed an additional 4371 students across our three campuses. This was a 14 per cent increase on the previous year, attributable to many things. First, we were successful in receiving new Commonwealth-funded places under the Backing Australia’s Future package. Second, and I believe most important, the quality, relevance and choice of courses that we offer is exceptional. Lastly, in recent years we have undertaken rigorous and far-sighted academic and strategic planning, which included the extension of the University into the regions of Rockingham/Kwinana and Peel.

Community engagement has been a cornerstone of Murdoch University since inception, and it was this that drove us to focus on meeting the needs of people in the rapidly growing southern corridor. While capitalising on the emerging rail connection with Mandurah, we foresaw opportunities for both new and established courses in these high-growth communities. Our Peel and Rockingham campuses are now well established and in the process we have built many unique and exciting alliances with government and industry partners in these regions.

The establishment of two new professorial positions at Peel has provided critical research capacity for that area of the State and rigour to our academic programs. The City of Mandurah has sponsored a Chair in Entrepreneurship & Business Innovation; the Peel Health Campus has funded a Chair in Nursing; and the City of Rockingham has sponsored the appointment of a Chair in Education. Nursing at Peel keeps going from strength to strength, as does our Peel Careers Combo, which caters specifically for mature-age students and those wanting to return to study.

Vibrancy and innovation are also to the fore at Murdoch’s South Street campus, where we are a key player in a major Government planning initiative that is focussed on the soon-to-be Murdoch rail transit centre. Our near neighbours – the State’s largest private hospital (St John of God), the planned Fiona Stanley teaching hospital, and Challenger TAFE – will join us in this landmark precinct development. We relish the opportunity this presents for research and teaching collaborations, having recently initiated on-campus tenancies in the new Eastern Precinct involving some of the State’s largest corporations and medical research bodies. South Street already has a bevy of exciting, world-class facilities, including the Media Arts Centre, a Veterinary Hospital accredited internationally, Psychology Clinic, Chiropractic Clinic and the Law Faculty’s School’s highly original ‘moot court’, capable of staging full mock trials.

Murdoch is a founding member of the Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia) group, which supports our strong presence in national developments. Through IRU Australia we rub shoulders with other outstanding institutions – Flinders, Griffith, La Trobe, Macquarie and Newcastle Universities. Established in the sixties and seventies, the six member universities were built on a ‘nextgeneration’ approach to education and research, which included a set of foundation principles that are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago – innovation and risk-taking, strong interdisciplinary ethos and a problem-solving approach.

IRU Australia continues to set the pace in educational and research innovation. The group won Commonwealth funding for a collaborative student exchange program in environmental science, which is providing a model for student mobility both nationally and internationally. Related to this, Murdoch was chosen by the United Nations as the focal point for their environmental activities in the Asia- Pacific region. Another key benefit on the horizon for Murdoch is that we will soon share access to a unique digital repository of publications and research-related materials, the result of the IRU Libraries Group being recently awarded funding for this project.

Our world is growing ever smaller, courtesy of technology and the ease of international travel. Universities now exist in a global market and Murdoch made sure it was in the vanguard for meeting the many challenges that this entails. We were one of the earliest tertiary institutions to find places for overseas students and enrolment numbers keep climbing. We have also been very proactive in providing incountry studies for our near neighbours, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, and with the provision of study programs using the internet and other advanced communication technologies.

Our success in adapting to global change is reflected in our position in the top 500 of the respected Shanghai Jiao Tong University assessment of universities. This is equivalent to being amongst the world’s top three per cent.

I am often asked what it means to be a university in the 21st Century. In answering, I invariably reflect upon the rising complexity of life and the fact that the world is becoming more and more competitive and high-tech. In Australia, universities are increasingly seen as being at the heart of the national response to these changes, expected to provide both skilled manpower and research that are always relevant. We are integral to the development and transfer of knowledge between higher education, industry and the community, and generation of national prosperity. These national aspirations fit Murdoch University like a glove.

Despite the pace of change, Murdoch has not had cause to deviate from its founding principles – innovation, integrating ideas across different disciplines and community engagement. And I have no doubt that these values will pervade life on our campuses for another 30 years and beyond. We are extremely proud that we continue to be acclaimed nationally and internationally as a university that offers outstanding quality of teaching, underpinned by intensive and highly relevant research.

Professor John Yovich
Vice Chancellor