University of Melbourne: an Australian public institution

The university of Melbourne was founded as a public university in 1853. That makes it the second oldest university in Australia but when it comes to the state of Victoria, it is actually the oldest. The institution is divided into several campuses with the main one located in Parkville, North of Melbourne. In 2010, the school reported to have invested A$1.173 billion into its development and out of that $767.5 million was spent in research.

Based on the Times Higher Education Rankings, between 2010 to 2013, the university of Melbourne has been placed among the top in Australia. The Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) also rated the establishment among the best. The latest ranking coming from the Times Higher Education placed the university 28th in the world. It was ranked number 2 in region of Asia and QS rated it 31st in the world.

Research
When it comes to research, the university claims to have spent in research an amount that is only second to the expenditure of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). An amount of $767.5 million was spent in 2010 into research.

On that year the establishment had the highest number of awards with respect to the ones awarded by the federal government post-graduate awards. It also produced the largest amount of Research Higher Degree that year. A lot of International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS) were also obtained.

Residential colleges
Students attending Melbourne University will find themselves in one of the 12 residential colleges it has to offer. Seven of those are found in what is referred to as the College Crescent while the other 5 are found outside the grounds of the university.

Libraries
Every year, loan transactions at the university library make around 42 million items exchanged, with 3 million visitors coming in. The general collection is made of 3.5 million items counting books, DVDs, periodicals, photographic slides, music scores as well as rare prints and maps.

Aside that students can also have access to 32,000 e-books, specialist journals in digital form and 100s of databases. There are different libraries specialized in offering books related to arts and humanities, biochemistry and medicine, business and economics, law and veterinary science.

Other campuses
Aside the main campus the university has 4 other campuses spread in the metropolis. They are found in Werribee, Hawthorn, Southbank and Burnley. Each campus is focused on offering certain specific types of courses. For example horticultural courses are taught on the Burnley campus while Performing arts are taught on the Southbank campus. For those who want to learn commerce they will have to go to the Hawthorn campus and Werribee campus is for Veterinary Science.

Other campuses like the Creswick and Dookie which were usually used for residential purposes are now used for forestry and agriculture courses.

The Melbourne Business School is partly owned by the university. Based in Parkville, it was ranked 46th by the Financial Times in its 2012 global rankings.

The university of Melbourne is one of the best in Australia and it is strongly recommended to those to want to further their studies.