Quality agency backs Melbourne Model progress

The independent university quality monitor has commended the implementation of the University of Melbourne’s new generation degrees.

An Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audit of the `Melbourne Model’ and the University’s internationalisation efforts said it had achieved ``very substantial curriculum renewal in a comparatively short time’’.

The audit report, released today, commended the University on 11 separate aspects of its performance, including:

• Its commitment to multidisciplinary research
• Its surveying of students’ experiences and immediate action on their feedback
• Its substantial investment in new student centres and learning spaces, and
• The introduction of mandatory diagnostic English language assessments for   specified groups of students.

It said University academics had been fully engaged in the development and implementation of the model and commended them for ``embracing the opportunities presented by the model and for the efforts they have contributed to development of new programs’’.

The report also said: ``In developing the Melbourne Model, the University is giving appropriate attention to equity and access for entry to undergraduate and to graduate programs’’.

On internationalisation, AUQA said the University was moving towards an inclusive view of global engagement and that there had been a substantial rise in students taking language subjects as a result of the increase in `breadth’ subjects as part of the new degrees.

``One of the benefits of the University’s radical approach to curriculum renewal has been increased disciplinary and cross-disciplinary engagement among academics in science and more widely,’’ the report said.

``The Audit Panel was particularly impressed by the University breadth subjects, which are global, transdisciplinary and address major social issues.’’

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis said it was pleasing to have independent affirmation of the quality of the University’s new curriculum and direction, which had drawn interest from institutions around Australia and internationally and which aligned Melbourne with many of the world’s leading universities.

``It was particularly gratifying that the audit group acknowledged the support and contribution of academics without which the implementation of the model would not have been possible,’’ Professor Davis said.

He said while there were still challenges ahead, the signs were positive.

The increased ENTER scores for Science, Biomedicine and Arts this year indicated that there had been strong demand for the new undergraduate degrees and that the quality of students applying was high, Professor Davis said.

He said when the first intake of Melbourne Model students graduated next year, they would be better prepared to negotiate a changing world with shifting boundaries and new challenges.

Professor Davis said the commendation of Melbourne’s curriculum renewal followed last month’s affirmation of its research performance in the Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings of world universities, in which it jumped 13 places to be 62nd in the world.