Mediocre higher education is a recipe for national mediocrity, economically and culturally. The University of Melbourne is entrepreneurial as a means of underwriting higher educational quality. In short, we need the kind of mixed funding base that our competitors in other countries already have. The University of Melbourne will continue to press government to increase national investment in higher education. It welcomes new Commonwealth investment in research and research training, and the impressive investment the Bracks Government has made in the development of Victoria as a biotechnology hub.
Higher education is a private good as well as a public benefit.
That is why Melbourne has established Melbourne University Private, taken a lead in setting up and developing Universitas 21 as a potent international higher education network, and introduced fee-based educational programs. Melbourne University Private is growing in encouraging ways. It complements the public university. Able to adopt flexible modes and patterns of delivery, it operates in ways that the public university could not readily undertake. The academic board of the University of Melbourne guarantees the quality of its courses, but it has the freedom to develop and certify award and certificate courses designed specifically to meet the educational and training needs of industry, government or individual clients.