Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 1 ENGAGEMENT at MELBOURNE 2015–2020 2 Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020
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Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 1 ENGAGEMENT AT MELBOURNE 2015–2020 2 Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 CONTENTS Preface 3 Engagement at Melbourne 4 Vision 6 Commitment 1 Public value 8 Commitment 2 Engaged students 11 Commitment 3 Engaged research 14 Enabling strategies 16 INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Photographer: Andrew Curtis The Melbourne Accelerator Program is located at LAB-14, Carlton Connect, the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of the University. The program provides residency, entrepreneurship training, financial support and mentoring for startups such as Scann3d who, using the Oculus Rift device, developed a 3D visualisation service for real estate marketing content. Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 3 Preface portfolio of efforts building meaningful This strategy expands upon the connections beyond the academy. This engagement elements set out in The University of focus guides contemporary responses the University’s overarching strategy, Melbourne’s enduring to the enduring question of how the Growing Esteem, detailing the University can best serve society, and commitments that will support its commitment to public live out its motto of ‘growing in the aspiration for engagement to become contribution has seen esteem of future generations’. a defining feature of its institutional character. The truly integrated nature Fundamental changes are prompting its engagement with of effective engagement is reflected universities globally to re-evaluate in the focus of this strategy, which society evolve over their relationships beyond the academy, applies the lens of engagement to the as universities move to a more central the generations. full breadth of the University’s endeavours. place in the intellectual, economic Our success in delivering this strategy and cultural life of their communities. depends vitally on the efforts of the The role and value of institutions entire University community. engaging with the wider world has Since its founding, the University has been emphatically affirmed, enriching By 2020, we envisage a university that held engagement as central to its values the academic mission while deepening stands as one of the finest in the world, and purpose, ensuring that its ethos as a the public value that universities create. distinguished by its demonstrated public spirited institution finds expression commitment to public value. through all of its endeavours. In 2015, the University sets its course for addressing the challenges and In recent years, the University has opportunities of engagement, and Mr Adrian Collette AM renewed its focus on the role and potential bringing about a sustained outward Vice-Principal (Engagement) of engagement. Its place as the ‘third shift to its institutional perspective. strand’ of our triple helix conception This will demand change to the Professor Ian Anderson of institutional strategy—albeit one University’s established ways of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) intimately bound with teaching and working, while retaining the values research—framed engagement as both and practices that make the University’s an institution-wide approach underpinning contribution uniquely valuable. the academic mission and as a distinct 4 Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 Engagement at Melbourne Once regarded as an unresolved question of its time, the relationship between universities and the communities they serve has shaped universities for each generation. An enduring commitment A changing context Since its establishment more than 160 the moral and intellectual life of the Engagement encompasses the interactions years ago, the University of Melbourne city. Many of the buildings on campus in between the academy and wider society, has forged an evolving public role. With 2015—the Chemistry Building, Wilson Hall, for the enrichment of both. For a decade, an aspiration of ‘growing in the esteem of the Grainger Museum, the Baillieu Library the University has positioned this ‘third future generations’, the University carried and the Beaurepaire Centre—reflect the strand’ as an explicit element of its the expectations of an emerging city to deep and wide-ranging scope of ongoing character and strategy, formalising educate the professionals it needed, as philanthropic support for the University. a public commitment made at the well as leading many domains of public life. University’s founding. The University’s first salaried To meet the city’s growing needs, the Vice-Chancellor, Raymond Priestley, As the concept and practice of University expanded from its original regarded the relationship between engagement have matured, so too has Bachelor of Arts to create new courses universities and communities as one recognition of its value to the University. in law, engineering and medicine. Beyond of the unresolved questions of the time. The broadening mission of universities, the campus, professors actively served He advocated passionately and publicly coupled with new expectations of the the community as public intellectuals, for the interests of the University, as an established roles of teaching and research, writing for newspapers, editing journals institution that develops ‘the men and has sharpened the focus on engagement and participating in civic life. The women who will lead the community as a quality that is fundamental to University’s sporting clubs established of the future, the ideas upon which its the public relevance and sustainability links with the wider community, while the future should be moulded, and the ideals of the academic enterprise. This focus campus gardens became a popular leisure by which its people shall be inspired’.1 will continue to grow and mature as destination for local residents. Some of expectations of engaged universities are Subsequent University leaders Melbourne’s enduring cultural institutions embedded in government policy, student emphasised the pursuit of knowledge can trace their origins to the University: choice and global rankings. and its dissemination, and the importance State Library Victoria, the foundation of contributing to a global academic As Growing Esteem observes, ‘Now, stone of which was laid on the same community. By the 1980s, the notion more than ever, a great university is global day as that of the University in 1854; the of a University with three roles was in impact and influence.’ Our institutional National Museum (the predecessor to established: provision of education; outlook is global, reflecting the diversity Museum Victoria), which was once housed the advancement of knowledge; and and ambitions of our students and staff, at the Parkville campus; and the National a contribution to the intellectual, cultural and the global platforms for leading Gallery Art School, now the Victorian and social development of the community. research and innovation. This need not College of the Arts, which was founded This concept was at the core of the imply a global presence, but extends to at Australia’s first public art museum. University’s 2005 strategy, Growing the reach of our ideas, the preparation of Benefaction has long supported the Esteem, which introduced the triple our graduates as ‘global citizens’, and the University’s development. Many generous helix metaphor of three tightly bound capacity to engage internationally with benefactors in the University’s early priorities: research, learning and universities, governments and industry. decades had little formal education teaching, and knowledge transfer themselves, but believed in the (later becoming ‘engagement’). University’s social role in advancing Engagement at Melbourne 2015–2020 5 A new direction ABOVE: YOTHU YINDI The breadth of endeavour encompassed Against new expectations of public FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP contribution has come an increasing within engagement has, at times, reliance of Australia’s public universities challenged the University’s established Photographer: James Mitchelhill on private and competitive funding. In this systems, structures and ways of working. context, engagement has become vital to Guided by a belief in the potential of Gumatj leader and Yothu Yindi Foundation chairman Galarrwuy connecting universities with non-academic engagement, and encouraged by its Yunupingu AM (left of picture) was partners that bring complementary skills, successes, the University is now strongly awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by resources and ambitions, enriching the placed to offer a contemporary response the University of Melbourne at the 2015 value of teaching and research. to Raymond Priestley’s question. Garma Festival. The award recognised and celebrated the significance of his As ever, the University’s academic In part, this reflects the changing work for Indigenous rights. role of universities in the digital age. mission must be central to our Universities that aspire to excellence engagement efforts, both in leading and public contribution are increasingly the agenda and being shaped by it. collaborators in wider systems, connecting Our engagement efforts will focus with minds and resources from a on where the University has distinctive LEFT: ADDRESSING THE range of sectors to apply and advance contributions to make and where the GRAND CHALLENGES knowledge. In an era marked by the benefits are compelling. These will democratisation of knowledge, those necessarily span the local, national and Photographer: Peter Casamento universities most ably equipped to engage global communities the University serves, The University of Melbourne is the lead in