New York University And University of Melbourne

New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian American research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Founded in 1831, NYU is one of the largest private nonprofit institutions of American higher education(SONY PCG-5G2L battery).

NYU was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1950. The university counts 34 Nobel Prize winners, 3 Abel Prize winners, 10 National Medal of Science recipients, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, 30 Academy Award winners, and Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners among its faculty and alumni. NYU also has MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders as well as National Academy of Sciences members among its past and present graduates and faculty(SONY PCG-5G3L battery).

NYU is organized into 18 schools, colleges, and institutes, located in six centers throughout Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, as well as more than a dozen other sites across the world, with plans for further expansion.

Main article: History of New York University

Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, declared his intention to establish "in this immense and fast-growing city ... a system of rational and practical education fitting for all and graciously opened to all"(SONY PCG-F305 battery). A three-day long "literary and scientific convention" held in City Hall in 1830 and attended by over 100 delegates debated the terms of a plan for a new university. These New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based on merit, not birthright, status or social class. On April 18, 1831, an institution was established(SONY PCG-5J1L battery), with the support of a group of prominent New York City residents from the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders. Albert Gallatin was elected as the institution's first president. On April 21, 1831, the new institution received its charter and was incorporated as the University of the City of New York by the New York State Legislature; older documents often refer to it by that name(SONY PCG-5J2L battery). The university has been popularly known as New York University since its beginning and was officially renamed New York University in 1896. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms of four-story Clinton Hall, situated near City Hall.[19] In 1835, the School of Law, NYU's first professional school, was established. Although the impetus to found a new school was partly a reaction by evangelical Presbyterians to what they perceived as the Episcopalianism of Columbia College, (SONY PCG-5K2L battery) NYU was created non-denominational, unlike many American colleges at the time.

The University Heights campus, now home to the Bronx Community College

Whereas NYU had its Washington Square campus since its founding, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus. NYU also had a desire to follow New York City's development further uptown. NYU's move to the Bronx occurred in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken. (SONY PCG-5L1L battery)The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was. As a result, most of the university's operations along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering were housed there. NYU's administrative operations were moved to the new campus, but the graduate schools of the university remained at Washington Square(SONY PCG-6S2L battery). In 1914, Washington Square College was founded as the downtown undergraduate college of NYU. In 1935, NYU opened the "Nassau College-Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead, Long Island". This extension would later become a fully independent Hofstra University.[22]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and the troubles spread to the city's institutions, including NYU. (SONY PCG-6S3L battery) Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, NYU President James McNaughton Hester negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which occurred in 1973.[24] After the sale of the Bronx campus, University College merged with Washington Square College. In the 1980s, under the leadership of President John Brademas, NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign that was spent almost entirely on updating facilities(SONY PCG-6V1L battery). The campaign was set to complete in 15 years, but ended up being completed in 10. In 2003 President John Sexton launched a $2.5 billion campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources.[28]

[edit]University logo

The university logo, the upheld torch, is derived from the Statue of Liberty, signifying NYU's service to the city of New York. The torch is depicted on both the NYU seal and the more abstract NYU logo, designed in 1965 by renowned graphic designer Tom Geismar of the branding and design firm Chermayeff & Geismar(SONY PCG-6W1L battery). There are at least two versions of the possible origin of the university color, violet. Some believe that it may have been chosen because violets are said to have grown abundantly in Washington Square and around the buttresses of the Old University Building. Others argue that the color may have been adopted because the violet was the flower associated with Athens, the center of learning in ancient Greece(SONY PCG-7111L battery).

Cultural setting

Washington Square and Greenwich Village have been hubs of cultural life in New York City since the early nineteenth century. Much of this culture has intersected with NYU at various points in its history. Artists of the Hudson River School, the United States' first prominent school of painters, settled around Washington Square. Samuel F.B. Morse(SONY PCG-71511M battery), the first chair of Painting and Sculpture at NYU, and Daniel Huntington were early tenants of the Old University Building in the mid-nineteenth century. (The University rented out studio space and residential apartments within the "academic" building.) Artists and intellectuals, including Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman, have contributed to the artistic scene encompassing NYU(SONY PCG-6W3L battery). As a result, they had notable interaction with the cultural and academic life of the university.[23]

In the 1870s, sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French lived and worked near the Square. By the 1920s, Washington Square Park was nationally recognized as a focal point for artistic and moral rebellion. As such, the Washington Square campus became more diverse and bustled with urban energy, contributing to academic change at NYU. (SONY PCG-7113L battery) Famed residents of this time include Eugene O'Neill, John Sloan, and Maurice Prendergast. In the 1930s, the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and the realists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton had studios around Washington Square. In the 1960s the area became one of the centers of the beat and folk generation, when Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan settled there(SONY PCG-7133L battery). This led to tension with the university, which at the time was in the midst of an aggressive facilities expansion phase.[23] In 1975, the university opened The Grey Art Gallery at 100 Washington Square East, housing the New York University art collection and featuring museum quality exhibitions(SONY PCG-7Z1L battery).

Campus

Main article: Campus of New York University

Most of NYU's buildings are located across a roughly 229-acre (930,000 m2) area bounded by Houston Street to the south, Broadway to the east, 14th Street to the north, and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the west. The core of NYU consists of buildings that surround Washington Square Park(SONY PCG-7Z2L battery).

With approximately 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh-largest university housing system in the U.S. as of 2007, and one of the largest among private schools.

[edit]Washington Square campus

Since the late 1970s, the central part of NYU has been its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village. The Washington Square Arch is an unofficial symbol of NYU. Until 2007, NYU had held its commencement ceremonies in Washington Square Park, but moved the ceremonies to Yankee Stadium in 2008 because of renovations to Washington Square. (SONY PCG-8Y1L battery)

The Silver Center circa 1900

In the 1990s, NYU became a "two square" university by building a second community around Union Square, in close proximity to Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community primarily consists of the priority residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Tower, Thirteenth Street Hall, University Hall, Third North Residence Hall, and Founders Hall(SONY PCG-8Y2L battery).

NYU operates theaters and performance facilities that are often used by the university's music conservatory and Tisch School of the Arts. External productions are also occasionally held in NYU's facilities. The largest performance accommodations at NYU are the Skirball Center for Performing Arts (850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South(SONY PCG-8Z2L battery), and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry[33] and Al Gore[34] as well as the recording of the third season finale of The Apprentice. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street(SONY PCG-8Z1L battery).

[edit]Bobst Library

Main article: Elmer Holmes Bobst Library

A view of the interior of Bobst

The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at NYU and one of the largest academic libraries in the United States. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the 12-story, 425,000-square-foot (39,500 m2) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park (at 70 Washington Square South) (SONY PCG-7112L battery) and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million-volume system. Bobst Library offers one Multidisciplinary Reference Center, a Research Commons, 28 miles of open-stacks shelving, and approximately 2,000 seats for student study. The library is visited by more than 6,800 users each day, and circulates more than one million books annually(SONY PCG-6W2L battery).

Bobst's Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media is one of the world's largest academic media centers, where students and researchers use more than 95,000 audio and video recordings per year. The Digital Studio offers a constantly evolving, leading-edge resource for faculty and student projects and promotes and supports access to digital resources for teaching, learning, research and arts events(SONY PCG-5K1L battery).

Bobst Library is also home to significant special collections. The Fales Collection houses one of the finest collections of English and American fiction in the United States, the unique Downtown Collection, documenting the New York literary avante-garde arts scene from the 1970s to the present, and the Food and Cookery Collection, which documents American food history with a focus on New York City(SONY VGP-BPS2 battery). Bobst Library also houses the Tamiment Library, one of the finest collections in the world for scholarly research in labor history, socialism, anarchism, communism, and American radicalism. Tamiment includes the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, the Archives of Irish America, the Center for the Cold War and the U.S., and the Frederic Ewen Academic Freedom Center(SONY VGP-BPS3 battery).

New facilities

Since the early 2000s, NYU has developed new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus. The Kimmel Center for University Life was built in 2003 to serve as the primary location for the university's student services offices. The center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center(SONY VGP-BPS4 battery). The School of Law built Furman Hall in 2004, incorporating elements of two historic buildings into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe.[38]

In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place. The facility is the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971.[39] In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190,000-square-foot (18,000 m2) residence hall on 12th Street(SONY VGP-BPS5 battery). The residence hall, named "Founders Hall", accommodates approximately 700 undergraduates and contains a host of other student facilities. It is currently the tallest building in the East Village.[40]

Othmer Hall

The Polymer Research Institute was established in 1942 and The Microwave Research Institute was established in 1945. The American Chemical Society designated the Polymer Research Institute as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on September 3, 2003. (SONY VGP-BPS5A battery)The Microwave Research Institute played a key role in World War II in the development of electromagnetic and microwave defense and communication systems, and was later renamed to the Weber Research Institute of NYU-Poly.[42] Other notable research centers of the institute include NSF-sponsored Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT), which ranks #1 among technology research centers in funding and (SONY VGP-BPS8 battery) in the number of industry participants according to the United States National Science Foundation,[43] Center for Advanced Technologies in Telecommunications (CATT), which is sponsored by New York State and NSF-funded Internet Security and Information Systems Lab, a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) designated Center of Excellence in Information Assurance(SONY VGP-BPS8A battery), Information Assurance Education and a Center of Excellence in Research.[44] A new 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) research center for wireless technologies, known as NYU Wireless, is scheduled to open in winter 2012.

Wunsch Building, a former church

The Polytechnic Institute of New York University, often referred to as Polytechnic Institute of NYU, NYU Polytechnic, NYU-Poly, or New York University School of Engineering and Technology,[46] is located in Downtown Brooklyn(SONY VGP-BPL8 battery). Founded in 1854, the institute adopted the European polytechnic university model, and its laboratory instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels led to close cooperation with the industry. It is one of the oldest private technology institutes in the United States,[47] and has a distinguished history in electrical engineering, polymer chemistry, aerospace, and microwave engineering(SONY VGP-BPS9 battery). It is centrally located in the MetroTech Center, the nation's largest urban university-industry science and technology park, and is close to transportation routes and easily accessible from all parts of New York City and Long Island. NYU-Poly operates several on-campus and off-campus business incubators and is known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace according to the New York(SONY VGP-BPS9/S battery) City Economic Development Corporation.[54] NYU-Poly has state-of-the-art facilities including a brand new library and new facilities for its electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering programs. The Brooklyn campus offers programs primarily for undergraduate students but also offers opportunities for graduate students(SONY VGP-BPS9A battery), including executive programs for students with related experience. Polytechnic is the first school in New York City to receive the designation Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the U.S. National Security Agency.[55]

Polytechnic Institute played a leadership role in the establishment of the MetroTech Center, one of the largest urban university-corporate parks in the world and the largest in the United States. Today, the 16-acre (65,000 m2) (SONY VGP-BPS9A/B battery), $1 billion complex is home to the institute and several technology-dependent companies, including Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), New York City Police Department's 911 Center, New York City Fire Department Headquarters and the U.S. technology and operations functions of JPMorgan Chase. In 1998, a Marriott Hotel was built adjacent to MetroTech(SONY VGP-BPS9/B battery). MetroTech has proven to be a case study in effective university, corporate, government and private-developer cooperation. It has resulted in renewing an area that once was characterized more by urban decay.

Dibner Library

Wunsch Building houses the school's student union and is used to host many social, cultural, and academic events for the school and community. The building dates back to 1847 and was the first independent black church in Brooklyn(SONY VGP-BPS9A/S battery). It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad and has been designated a historic landmark since November 24, 1981.

The Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, opened in 1990 in a new building, is Polytechnic's information hub, accessible online from anywhere, on or off campus, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, wireless networks allow users with notebook computers to access the library's electronic services from anywhere on campus(SONY VGP-BPL9 battery).

The institute also has campuses in downtown Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester, and in international locations such as Israel, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, and London. A $250 million expansion project is underway to expand NYU-Poly's Brooklyn campus.[56]

Other campuses and facilities

The New York University School of Medicine is situated near the East River waterfront at 550 First Avenue between East 30th and East 34th Streets. The campus hosts the medical school, Tisch Hospital, and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine(SONY VGP-BPS10 battery). Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU's Silver School of Social Work (formerly Ehrenkranz School of Social Work) manages branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College, in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College, and on Staten Island at the City University of New York's College of Staten Island(SONY VGP-BPL10 battery).

11 West 42nd Street

La Maison Française

In Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, NYU has a research facility that contains institutes, in particular the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the Woolworth Building in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs(SONY VGP-BPS11 battery).

NYU has two units located on the Upper East Side. The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a discrete entity within New York University, independent of any other school or department of the university, is located on East 84th St, while the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, a graduate school of art history and fine arts, is located at the James B. Duke Building at 1 East 78th St(SONY VGP-BPL11 battery).

In the Fall of 2010, NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) opened as the University's first overseas "Portal Campus" with an inaugural class of 150 students.[57] Unlike the University's other study abroad centers, NYUAD functions as a separate liberal arts college within a University, offering complete degree programs to students admitted directly to NYUAD. NYUAD recruits students from all over the world and describes itself as the "World's Honor College"(SONY VGP-BPL12 battery). The main campus for NYUAD is under construction on Saadiyat Island and is scheduled to open in 2014. Until then the school operates from a campus located in downtown Abu Dhabi.[58] The campus construction and operational costs are entirely funded by the Abu Dhabi government.

It was announced in 2011 that NYU planned to open another portal campus(SONY VGP-BPS12 battery), New York University Shanghai, for the fall semester of 2013. It was set to have about 3,000 undergraduate students, the majority of whom will be Chinese. It was approved by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China in January 2011.[59] NYU's local partner will be East China Normal University. ECNU's president Yu Lizhong will be the chancellor and play a major role in government relations while Jeffrey S. Lehman(SONY VGP-BPS13 battery), former president of Cornell amongst other positions, will serve as vice chancellor and have "free rein in academic affairs".

NYU has a host of foreign facilities used for study abroad programs, referred to as Global Academic Centers. As of 2011, NYU manages undergraduate academic-year and summer study abroad programs in Florence, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Accra, Madrid, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, and Abu Dhabi(SONY VGP-BPS13Q battery), with centers scheduled to open in Sydney and Washington DC in 2012.[61] One of the most noteworthy is the 57-acre (230,000 m2) campus of NYU Florence Villa LaPietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir Harold Acton to NYU in 1994.

NYU also has international houses on campus, including the Deutsches Haus, La Maison Française, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, the Glucksman Ireland House, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, the Hagop Kevorkian Center, an Africa House and a China House(SONY VGP-BPS13A/Q battery).

NYU was the founding member of the League of World Universities, an international organization consisting of rectors and presidents from urban universities across six continents. The league and its 47 representatives gather every two years to discuss global issues in education.[63] L. Jay Oliva formed the organization in 1991 just after he was inaugurated president of New York University.

Sustainability(SONY VGP-BPS13B/Q battery)

New York University has made the greening of its campus a large priority. For example, NYU has been the largest university purchaser of wind energy in the U.S. since 2009.[65] With this switch to renewable power, NYU is achieving benefits equivalent to removing 12,000 cars from the road or planting 72,000 trees(SONY VGP-BPS13/B battery). In May 2008, the NYU Sustainability Task Force awarded $150,000 in grants to 23 projects that would focus research and efforts toward energy, food, landscape, outreach, procurement, transportation and waste.[66] These projects include a student-led bike-sharing program modeled after Paris' Velib program with 30 bikes free to students, staff, and faculty. NYU received a grade of “B" on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010 from the Sustainable Endowments Institute. (SONY VGP-BPS13B/B battery)

NYU purchased 118 million kilowatt-hours of wind power during the 2006–2007 academic year – the largest purchase of wind power by any university in the country and any institution in New York City.[68] For 2007, the university expanded its purchase of wind power to 132 million kilowatt-hours. (SONY VGP-BPS13A/S battery)

The EPA ranked NYU as one of the greenest colleges in the country in its annual College & University Green Power Challenge.

Residence halls

Main article: New York University residence halls

Washington Square Village, home to NYU faculty and graduate students

With approximately 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh-largest university housing system in the U.S. as of 2007, and one of the largest among private schools. NYU's undergraduate housing system consists of 21 buildings. Uniquely, many of NYU's residence halls are converted apartment complexes or old hotels. In general, NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings(SONY VGP-BPS21A/B battery), and some are opulent. Many rooms are spacious and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms, such as kitchens, lavatories, living rooms and common areas. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students by bus to its campus(SONY VGP-BPS21B battery).

Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing during their enrollment at NYU. Most freshman residence halls are located near the Washington Square area. While nearly all of the residence halls that primarily house sophomores are located near the Union Square area, two former residence halls were located in the Financial District and one is still in use in Chinatown(SONY VGP-BPS21 battery). All of NYU's residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), an umbrella student council organization.

In 2007, the National Association of College and University Residence Halls named NYU the National School of the Year for IRHC and NRHH's strong efforts over the past year. In addition, NYU was named the National Program of the Year for UltraViolet Live, the annual inter-hall competition that raises funds for Relay For Life(SONY VGP-BPS21/S battery).

Arts and Science is currently the largest academic unit of the university. It has three subdivisions, which include the College of Arts and Science, the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and Liberal Studies.[72] The College of Arts and Science (CAS) was the only school when NYU was founded(SONY VGP-BPS13AS battery).

Other undergraduate schools include the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, the School of Social Work, the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development (the first school of education in the United States) (SONY VGP-BPS13S battery), the Stern School of Business, and Tisch School of the Arts. In 2008, Polytechnic University merged with NYU to become the Polytechnic Institute, providing NYU with an engineering school for the first time in three decades.[73] The university also plans to open up the Liberal Studies Program to all students for the Fall 2012 term by process of application, rather than by referral (as it has been since 1972) (SONY VGP-BPS13B/S battery).

Several schools at NYU also offer graduate and professional programs. NYU's postgraduate schools and divisions include the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, College of Dentistry, the College of Nursing, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the Institute of Fine Arts, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, the Polytechnic Institute, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the School of Law, the School of Medicine(SONY VGP-BPS13B/G battery), the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

NYU closed its School of Aeronautics in 1973, its College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1922, and has merged various programs with other schools. For example, its School of Engineering merged with the Polytechnic University of New York in 1973, and NYU's former College Hofstra Memorial became independent in 1937(SONY VGP-BPS14 battery).

NYU is ranked 22nd among all universities in the world by Global University Ranking (maintained by Wuhan University), and 20th nationally and 27th globally by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (formerly maintained by Shanghai Jiaotong University). NYU's schools and institutes are regularly ranked within the top 10 worldwide(SONY VGP-BPL14 battery).

NYU's philosophy department is ranked #1 among 50 philosophy departments in the English-speaking world.[85] NYU is also ranked #1 in finance, mathematics, Italian, and theater in the U.S. by the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, which uses data, such as faculty publications, grants, and honors and awards to rank 104 doctoral programs in 10 academic disciplines based on the research productivity of faculty members. (SONY VGP-BPS14/B battery)

The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is ranked #1 in applied mathematics in the U.S.,[90] #5 in citation impact worldwide and #12 in citations worldwide.[93] The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked NYU's math department #16 overall among top universities globally.[94] The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is also known for its research in pure mathematical areas, such as partial differential equations(SONY VGP-BPS14/S battery), probability and differential geometry (Professors Peter Lax, S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan and Mikhail Gromov won the 2005, 2007 and 2009 Abel Prize respectively for their research in these areas) as well as applied mathematical areas, such as computational biology and computational neuroscience(SONY VGP-BPS14B battery).

NYU's Stern School of Business undergraduate program is ranked #5 by U.S. News[91] and #15 by Business Week (previous rankings include #12 in 2010 and #8 in 2009). Stern's MBA program is ranked among the top in the U.S. and worldwide:in U.S. News, in Financial Times, #18 in BusinessWeek, #14 in The Economist, and #2 by research contribution(SONY VGP-BPS22 battery).

NYU's economics department is regularly ranked among the top 10 worldwide, including #6 in an updated Dusansky-Vernon Journal of Economic Literature study which ranked departments in terms of the publications of their faculty in top-five rated journals. NYU was ranked #9 globally in economics/business by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2009, one ahead of Yale University. (SONY VGP-BPS22 battery)

The School of Law is ranked #6 among law schools in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report (and has been ranked by the same source as high as #4 in previous years).[92] The law school is particularly noted as the nation's top law school in tax law, international law, and jurisprudence (philosophy of law). Some of NYU's alumni have been appointed justices of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court(SONY VGP-BPS18 battery).

NYU School of Medicine is ranked #26, and #11 for best AIDS program, by U.S. News and World Report.[109] The School of Medicine's alumni include four Nobel Prize recipients.

Polytechnic Institute of New York University's graduate engineering program was ranked #66 in its list of top 198 engineering schools by U.S. News. QS World University Rankings ranked NYU-Poly #189 out of 700 top Engineering & Technology colleges in the world. U.S. News ranked NYU-Poly's computer engineering program (SONY VGP-BPS22/A battery)#34 and its electrical engineering program #32 in the world, based on data from the QS World University Rankings. The Princeton Review ranks NYU-Poly's undergraduate electrical engineering program 12th in the nation, and its graduate electrical engineering program 13th in the nation. QS World University Rankings ranked NYU-Poly #51 in the world for mechanical engineering(SONY VGP-BPS22A battery), and #101 in the world for chemical engineering. Forbes ranks NYU-Poly 10th among "Colleges That Will Make You Rich".

In the social sciences, NYU was ranked #10 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2009, and #11 among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities. NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development has one of the top 15 education programs in the U.S. NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is ranked 6th nationally by U.S. News and World Report(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/W battery). In addition, several of Wagner's public affairs specializations are ranked in the top 10.

NYU's Tisch School of the Arts has produced more Academy Award winners than any other film institution in the U.S. NYU Tisch members are regularly nominated to win Oscars, Emmys, and other awards: in 2011, 15 Tisch members were nominated for Oscars, and 10 Tisch members claimed Emmys(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/R battery).

NYU's Creative Writing Program (GSAS) was included within The Atlantic's list of "Top Ten Graduate Programs in Creative Writing", having been selected from a pool of over 250 such programs currently active in the United States.

From 2004 to 2007, NYU was ranked by the Princeton Review as America's #1 "dream school" among high school seniors. In 2008 however, NYU slipped to 4th place in the Princeton Review poll, led only by Harvard, Yale, and Stanford(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/P battery), citing better financial aid among Ivy Leagues and using additional parental ratings. In 2006, NYU was named by Kaplan as one of the "New Ivies".

NYU ranks 30th on the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, which ranks the world's universities based on a composite indicator that takes into account both the volume of the Web contents (number of web pages and files) and the visibility and impact of these web publications according to the number of external inlinks (site citations) they received(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/L battery).

According to data compiled by Forbes Magazine in 2008, NYU ranks 7th among universities that have produced the largest number of living billionaires.

Admissions and enrollment

NYU has a large, diverse student population representing all 50 states and more than 130 countries.[2] About 25–30% of NYU's incoming freshmen are from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, while the remaining 70–75% are from outside the Tri-State area(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E battery). 10% of the students are from one of New York City's five boroughs and 20% are from the surrounding Tri-State area. NYU's main feeder schools reflect a heavy Northeastern U.S. presence, and particularly a strong New York City influence. Among NYU's top feeder schools are prestigious high schools including Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Technical High School, Bronx High School of Science, and several top private schools in the northeast(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120 battery).

Out of the 42,242 applicants for the undergraduate class of 2015, around 30% were offered admission (when including admission statistics for the Liberal Studies Program). Out of the acceptances, 38% consisted of early decision applicants, who together form 23% of the undergraduate class. 4,650 freshmen joined NYU in Fall 2011. In 2008, NYU achieved a record low admission rate of 24% of applicants(SONY Vaio VGN-CR11H/B battery).

Admission to NYU is extremely selective. The middle 50% of SAT scores for the class of 2015 was 630–730 for critical reading, 650–750 for math, and 660–750 for writing, with mean scores falling within the top percentiles. The middle 50% of ACT scores for the class of 2015 fell between 29 and 31. The average GPA corresponds with an A-range letter grade, and most incoming students were in the top 10% of their class(SONY Vaio VGN-CR116E battery).

On June 21, 2010, NYU announced the profile of the first freshman class of NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), which calls itself the "World's Honors College". The class includes 150 students, 36% of whom are from the United States. The average SAT score was 1470 and the acceptance rate was 2.1%(SONY Vaio VGN-CR116 battery).

In a quest to find talented individuals from around the world and become a truly global university, New York University signed an agreement to accept high-performing students from the University of the People who are eligible to apply to New York University's Abu Dhabi campus. The Abu Dhabi campus is able to grant generous financial aid, enabling those students who are eligible, albeit disadvantaged financially, to attend the highly selective NYU Abu Dhabi campus(SONY Vaio VGN-CR115E battery).

During the admissions process, some institutions at NYU are relatively more selective than others in certain categories, depending on the institution's educational goals. For example, NYU's Abu Dhabi program looks primarily for students who have demonstrated a history of leadership in addition to gifted intellectual ability (SONY Vaio VGN-CR115 battery) (the average SAT scores of admitted students are 715 for verbal and 730 for math), whereas NYU's Tisch School of the Arts – while still requiring very high SAT/ACT scores – focuses much more on artistic and creative prowess (demonstrable via a portfolio) than do other schools at NYU.

NYU is among the top 15 universities in the U.S. in the number of National Merit Scholars in the first-year undergraduate student body(SONY Vaio VGN-CR110 battery).

Budget and fundraising

New York University has successfully completed a seven-year, $2.5 billion campaign, surpassing expectations by raising more than $3 billion over the seven-year period. Started in 2001, this campaign was the university's largest in its history, in which they planned to "raise $1 million per day for scholarships and financial aid, faculty building, new academic initiatives(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11S battery), and enhancing NYU's physical facilities".The campaign included a $50 million gift from the Tisch family (after which one building and the art school are named) and a $60 million gift from six trustees called "The Partners Fund", aimed at hiring new faculty. On October 15, 2007 the university announced that the Silver family donated $50 million to the School of Social Work, which will be renamed as a result(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ15T battery). This is the largest donation ever to a school of social work in the United States.

The 2007–2008 academic year was the most successful fundraising year to date for NYU, with the school raising $698 million in only the first 11 months of the year, representing a 70% increase in donations from the prior year.[138] The University also recently announced plans for NYU's Call to Action, a new initiative to ask alumni and donors to support financial aid for students at NYU(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ15G battery).

The university has announced a 25-year strategic development plan, scheduled to coincide with its bicentennial in 2031. Included in the "NYU 200" plans are increasing resident and academic space, hiring additional exemplary faculty, and involving the New York City community in a transparent planning process. Additionally, NYU hopes to make their buildings more environmentally friendly, which will be facilitated by an evaluation of all campus spaces. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ4000 battery) As a part of this plan, NYU purchased 118 million kilowatt-hours of wind power during the 2006–2007 academic year – the largest purchase of wind power by any university in the country and any institution in New York City.[68] For 2007, the university expanded its purchase of wind power to 132 million kilowatt-hours.[69] As a result, the EPA ranked NYU as one of the greenest college in the country in its annual College & University Green Power Challenge(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ460E battery).

Student life

Student government

The Student Senators Council is the governing student body at NYU. The SSC has been involved in controversial debates on campus, including a campuswide ban on the sale of Coca-Cola products in 2005, and the Graduate Student Organizing Committee unionization in 2001 and subsequent strike in 2005. This ban was lifted by the University Senate on February 5, 2009(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ440N battery).

Student organizations

NYU Program Board logo

A bus system transports students to and from the far ends of campus.

NYU has over 450 student clubs and organizations on campus. In addition to the sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and study clubs, there are many organizations on campus that focus on entertainment, arts, and culture. These organizations include various student media clubs: for instance, the daily student newspaper the Washington Square News(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ440E battery), the NYU Local daily blog, The Plague comedy magazine, and the literary journals Washington Square Review and The Minetta Review, as well as student-run event producers such as the NYU Program Board and the Inter-Residence Hall Council. It also operates radio station WNYU-FM 89.1 with a diverse college radio format, transmitting to the entire New York metropolitan area from the original campus(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ430E battery), and via booster station WNYU-FM1 which fills in the signal in lower Manhattan from atop one of the Silver Towers, next to the football field at the Washington Square campus.

During the University Heights era, an apparent rift evolved with some organizations distancing themselves from students from the downtown schools. The exclusive Philomathean Society operated from 1832 to 1888 (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ280E battery) (formally giving way in 1907 and reconstituted into the Andiron Club). Included among the Andiron's regulations was "Rule No.11: Have no relations save the most casual and informal kind with the downtown schools". The Eucleian Society, rival to the Philomathean Society, was founded in 1832. The Knights of the Lamp was a social organization founded in 1914 at the School of Commerce(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ190 battery). This organization met every full moon and had a glowworm as its mascot. The Red Dragon Society, founded in 1898, is thought to be the most selective society at NYU. In addition, NYU's first yearbook was formed by fraternities and "secret societies" at the university.

New York University has traditions which have persisted across campuses. Since the beginning of the 20th century initiation ceremonies have welcomed incoming NYU freshmen. At the Bronx University Heights Campus(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ150E battery), seniors used to grab unsuspecting freshmen, take them to a horse-watering trough, and then dunk them head-first into what was known colloquially as "the Fountain of Knowledge". This underground initiation took place until the 1970s.[150] Today freshmen take part in university-sponsored activities during what is called "Welcome Week". In addition(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ160 battery), throughout the year the university traditionally holds Apple Fest (an apple-themed country fest that began at the University Heights campus), the Violet Ball (a dance in the atrium of Bobst Library), Strawberry Fest (featuring New York City's longest Strawberry Shortcake), and the semi-annual midnight breakfast where Student Affairs administrators serve free breakfast to students before finals(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ260E battery).

Greek life

Some of the first fraternities in the country were formed at NYU. Greek life first formed on the NYU campus in 1837 when Psi Upsilon chartered its Delta Chapter. The first fraternities at NYU were social ones. With their athletic, professional, intellectual, and service activities, later groups sought to attract students who also formed other groups(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E battery). Since then, Greek letter organizations have proliferated to include 25 social fraternities and sororities. Approximately 7% of NYU students choose to join fraternities or sororities.

Four governing boards oversee Greek life at the university. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) has jurisdiction over all twelve recognized fraternities on campus. Eight sororities are under the jurisdiction of the Panhellenic Council (PhC), which features six national sororities(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L battery) (ΔΦΈ, ΑΈΦ, ΆΣΤ, ΠΒΦ, KKΓ and ZTA) and two local sororities (ΆΦΖ and ΘΦΒ). Five multicultural organizations maintain membership in the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), including two fraternities and three sororities. All three of the aforementioned boards are managed under the auspices of the Inter-Greek Council.

Greek organizations have historical significance at NYU. Delta Phi Epsilon(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z battery), Zeta Psi, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Tau Delta Phi, Alpha Kappa Psi and Delta Sigma Pi were founded at NYU. Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America was chartered in 1847, Delta Sigma Pi in 1907, and Alpha Epsilon Pi in 1913. Delta Phi Epsilon was founded in 1917. The NYU Gamma chapter of Delta Phi, founded in 1841, is the longest continuously active fraternity chapter in the world, having never gone inactive since its establishment(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M battery). Delta Phi is also the oldest continuously active fraternity in the United States, being the only organization in the original Union Triad to remain active since its institute. The NYU Gamma chapter of Zeta Beta Tau is the oldest active ZBT chapter in the country.

Athletics

Main article: NYU Violets

NYU Athletics Logo

NYU's sports teams are referred to as the NYU Violets, the colors being the trademarked hue "NYU Violet", and white. Since 1981, the school mascot has been a bobcat(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18M battery), whose origin can be traced back to the abbreviation then being used by the Bobst Library computerized catalog — short: Bobcat. NYU's sports teams include men's and women's varsity basketball, cross country, fencing, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.[159] All of NYU's sports teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association, with the exceptions of Men's Volleyball, which competes in the Division I Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association, and fencing, which also participates in Division I(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18 battery). The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner.

An NYU Men's Hockey player

While NYU has had All-American football players, the school has not had a varsity football team since 1952. Notable football players include Hall of Fame Ken Strong (1956) and Ed Smith (1934), the model for the Heisman Trophy(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ210CE battery). In the 1940 season, before a football game between NYU and Missouri, students protested against the "gentlemen's agreement" to exclude black athletes (at Missouri's request). The protest against this practice is the first time such protests were recorded to have occurred.

Men's Volleyball in Coles Sports Center

NYU, within its brief history in NCAA Division III, has won two national team championships and many league championships. In 1997, the Women's Basketball team(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31S battery), led by head coach Janice Quinn, won a national championship over the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU Men's Basketball and head coach Joe Nesci appeared in the Division III National Championship game in 1994. In 2006, the Men's Cross Country team finished 2nd at the NCAA Championship. The following year, behind the emotional support of Dan Schwartzman(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31Z battery), the Men's Cross Country team won the 2007 NCAA National Cross Country Championship at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

NYU Men's and Women's Swimming teams captured consecutive (2004–2005) Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. Christian Majdick of the Men's Track and Field team captured the NCAA Division III championship for the triple jump in 2003. Lauren Henkel(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E battery), a track and field athlete and the current assistant coach of the Women's Track and Field team, acquired All-American status three times for High Jump. The Men's Soccer team won its league ECAC championship in the 2005–2006 season.

The Men's Ice Hockey team participates in the ACHA (DII) and is in the SECHL. During the 2003–2004 season, the Ice Hockey team finished second (2nd) in the nation, losing to Oakland University of Michigan(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J battery).

It appears from older fight songs that Rutgers University may have been a rival of NYU's at some point.

NYU students also compete in club and intramural sports, including badminton, baseball, basketball, crew, equestrianism, ice hockey, lacrosse, rugby football, softball, squash, martial arts, tennis, triathlon, and ultimate. The Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M battery). Many of NYU's varsity teams play their games at various facilities and fields throughout Manhattan because of the scarcity of space for playing fields near campus. In 2002, NYU opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. In the same year, NYU's intramural dance team won the National Championship title at the National Dance Alliance (NDA)Division III competition in Daytona, Florida(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31B battery).

Faculty and alumni

Main articles: List of New York University alumni, List of New York University faculty and staff, List of NYU Polytechnic Institute people, List of NYU Stern people, List of NYU Law School people, List of NYU Tisch School of the Arts people, List of NYU Courant Institute people, List of NYU GSAS people, List of NYU CAS people, and List of NYU School of Medicine people(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ32 battery)

NYU counts 34 Nobel Prize winners by affiliation, 3 winners of the Abel prize, 10 National Medal of Science recipients, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, 30 Academy Award winners, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners, and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders among its past and present graduates and faculty. NYU has been insistent that its faculty be active in instruction on the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as active in research(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410 battery).

As the largest private non-profit university in the country, NYU has one of the largest alumni bodies in the world. At the end of 2004, NYU had about 350,000 alumni. Of these, at least 17,000 live abroad. The New York University Office for Alumni Affairs oversees various activities such as class reunions, local NYU Club gatherings, NYU alumni travel, and Career Services(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21 battery). The Alumni club on campus is the Torch Club, located in Greenwich Village. In addition, the Princeton Club of New York (PCNY) has also invited New York University alumni for club membership.

Notable graduating classes include 1941, which graduated three later Nobel Prize laureates (Julius Axelrod, Gertrude B. Elion and Clifford Shull), Olympic Gold Medalist John Woodruff, sportscaster Howard Cosell and sociologist Morris Janowitz; 1957 included Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt and president of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Josef Singer(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S battery); 1970 included Thomas S. Popkewitz, professor of curriculum theory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1974 included author Warren Farrell, Ph.D.; and 1977 included: former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan; IRS Commissioner Mark Everson; INSEAD Dean Gabriel Hawawini; Pulitzer, Oscar and Tony Award winner John Patrick Shanley; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman; physicist Lewis E. Little(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M battery); NASDAQ CEO Robert Greifeld; Ma Ying-jeou president of Republic of China (Taiwan); Guillermo Endara president of Republic of Panama, Clive Davis music industry executive, and Cathy Minehan, Federal Reserve Chairman Boston.

Since 1885, the most spirited undergraduate class has been awarded "The Bun". The award consisted of a bun enclosed in a long casket-like enclosure made of silver. The Bun was taken three times: in 1921, 1971, and 1981(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M battery). The award was last returned in 2002 and currently resides in the Silver Center.

In film and literature

NYU is often portrayed in a variety of television shows, motion pictures, literature, and other media. Fictional NYU students and faculty include Kramer's intern Darren in Seinfeld, who helps him run "Kramerica Industries"; a student reporter in a different episode of Seinfeld who interviews Jerry; Theo Huxtable (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) from The Cosby Show(Sony VGN-NR11S/S Battery), who graduates from NYU in the series finale; Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) from Friends, who becomes an NYU professor in Season 6; Character Tom Collins from Rent, who taught there; Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) in the movie Wall Street (1987); Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) from the American Pie films; Paul Tannek (Jason Biggs) in Loser (2000); Alex Foreman (Scarlett Johansson) in In Good Company (2005) (Sony VGN-NR11M/S Battery); Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) in The Family Man (2000); Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) in The Freshman (1990); Justin Cobb (Lou Taylor Pucci) in the film version of Thumbsucker (2005), who secretly applies and is accepted to NYU; the songwriter Albert Peterson in the musical Bye Bye Birdie who promises his sweetheart Rosie to start studying at NYU and become an English teacher(Sony VGN-NR260E/S Battery); and the characters Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey, Vanessa Abrams and Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl.

In addition, the campus of NYU has been the backdrop for various pieces of fiction: Grace Adler's office in Will & Grace is portrayed in the show as being in the Puck Building, home to NYU's Wagner School; Henry James' novel Washington Square is set around the NYU area; and Rose of Washington Square (1939), 13 Washington Square (1928), Annie Hall (1977) (Sony VGN-NR260E/T Battery), When Harry Met Sally (1989), I Am Legend (2007), August Rush (2007), Remember Me (2010), Step Up 3-D (2010) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) are centered around the NYU campus. In Ralph Bakshi's animated feature Fritz The Cat (1972), the dormitory that Fritz burns down is clearly supposed to be NYU's Weinstein Hall, located at 5-11 University Place near the northeast corner of Washington Square Park(Sony VGN-NR260E/W Battery). The Warner Brothers show Felicity was set at the "University of New York", clearly modeled after NYU; and NYU's old University Heights Campus in the Bronx provided the scenery for Sophie's Choice (1982), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), and Step Up 3D (2010). NYU is also featured in the TV show Californication(Sony VGN-NR11Z/S Battery).

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria. The main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb just north of the Melbourne CBD. The university also has several other campuses located across Victoria(Sony VGN-NR11Z/T Battery). It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group, the Universitas 21 and Association of Pacific Rim Universities networks. It is colloquially known as a sandstone university and has one of the largest financial endowments of any Australian university, standing at $1.173 billion as of 2010.

The University of Melbourne consistently ranks among the best universities in Australia and the world(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E battery). The university has been placed top in Australia, 37th in the world by the Times Higher Education 2011-2012 rankings of the world’s top 400 universities, and 31st in the world by QS 2011-2012 ranking. In Australia, the University of Melbourne is the second largest research organisation after the CSIRO. In 2010, it spent $767.5m on research and has consistently ranked first or(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z battery) second on the major national research indicators which are used by the Australian Government to allocate public funds for research and training infrastructure.

The university has more than 49,000 students, who are supported by just over 7,300 staff members. In 2008, it introduced the "Melbourne Model", a combination of various practices from American and European universities, aimed at consistency with the European Union's "Bologna process" and international relevance and standing for its degrees(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J battery). Glyn Davis AC is Melbourne's vice-chancellor.

Arms

The university's coat of arms is a blue shield on which a depiction of Victory in white colour holds her laurel wreath over the stars of the Southern Cross. The motto is written on a scroll beneath the shield, Postera crescam laude ("Later I shall grow by praise" or, more freely, "We shall grow in the esteem of future generations") The Latin is from a line in a Horace ode: ego postera crescam laude recens. The arms include no crest or supporters(Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 battery).

History

Cussonia Court, home to the Schools of Classics and Philosophy.

Melbourne University was established by Hugh Childers Auditor-General and Finance Minister in his first Budget Speech, on 4 November 1852, who set aside a sum of £10,000 for the establishment of a University. The University was established by Act of Incorporation on 22 January 1853, with power to confer degrees in arts, medicine, laws, and music(Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M battery). The act provided for an annual endowment of £9,000, while a special grant of £20.000 was made for buildings that year. The foundation stone was laid on 3 July 1854, and on the same day the foundation stone for the State Library Classes commenced in 1855 with three professors and sixteen students; of this body of students, only four graduated. The original buildings were officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria(Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S battery), Sir Charles Hotham, on 3 October 1855. The first chancellor, Redmond Barry (later Sir Redmond), held the position until his death in 1880.

In the university's early days, an architectural master-plan was developed, establishing the intended prevailing building style as gothic revival. Early influential architects included Melbourne's own Joseph Reed, who was responsible for the design of many of the early campus buildings(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E battery). Although the master-plan was followed until the 1930s, the 1950s saw the modernist style established as a new "house style", resulting in the mix of university buildings seen today.

The inauguration of the university was made possible by the wealth resulting from Victoria's gold rush. The institution was designed to be a "civilising influence" at a time of rapid settlement and commercial growth (Selleck, 2003) (Sony VAIO VGN-FW21J battery). It was designated secular and excluded from offering degrees in divinity - the churches could establish colleges on only the northern perimeter. The local population largely rejected the supposed elitism of its professoriate, favouring teaching of 'useful' subjects like law, over those they deemed 'useless' in the city's context, like classics. The townspeople won this debate, and law was introduced in 1857, and medicine and engineering in the 1860s(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L battery).

The admission of women in 1881 was a further victory for Victorians over the more conservative ruling council (Selleck 2003, p 164–165). Subsequent years saw many tensions over the direction of the emerging university and, in 1902, it was effectively bankrupt following the discovery of a ₤24,000 fraudulent defalcation by the university's bursar, Frederick Dickson, over the period 1886-1901 (when the yearly grant was £15,000). Dickson was jailed for seven years(Sony VAIO VGN-FW41M battery).

This resulted in a royal commission that recommended new funding structures, and an extension of disciplinary areas into agriculture and education.

By the time of World War I, governance was again a pressing concern. The council, consisting of more businesspeople than professors, obtained real powers in 1923 at the expense of the senate. Undergraduates could elect two members of the council(Sony VAIO VGN-FW41M/H battery). In this period, students tended to be drawn from affluent backgrounds, with a few opportunities for gifted scholarship students. The first vice-chancellor to be paid a salary was Raymond Priestley (1936) followed by John Medley in 1939.

After World War II, demand for Commonwealth-funded student places grew in Australia and the university catered for the demand, becoming much larger and more inclusive(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M battery).

The university's 150th anniversary was celebrated in 2003.

Governance of the university is grounded in an act of parliament, the Melbourne University Act 2009. The peak governing body is the "Council" the key responsibilities of which include appointing the Vice Chancellor and Principal, approving the strategic direction and annual budget, establishing operational policies and procedures (Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z battery)and overseeing academic and commercial activities as well as risk management. The chair of the Council is the "Chancellor". The "Academic Board" oversees learning, teaching and research activities and provides advice to the council on these matters. The "Committee of Convocation" represents graduates and its members are elected in proportion to the number of graduates in each faculty(Sony VAIO VGN-FW32J battery).

Endowment

In 2008, the university had an endowment of approximately $1.105 billion,[1] the largest of any Australian institution. Whilst the fund had grown rapidly for several years, providing up to $100 million of income per year, it shrank by 22% in 2008 as a result of the ongoing global financial crisis of 2007–2010(Sony VAIO VGN-FW17W battery). However Australian endownments are relatively small compared with those of the wealthiest US universities.

Peter C. Doherty is a Nobel Laureate based in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as well as being the College Visitor at Janet Clarke Hall. Sir James Mirrlees (Economic Science, 1996 - emeritus, Cambridge) and Sir Clive Granger (Economic Science, 2003 - emeritus, San Diego) both taught at the university from 2005 to 2007(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E battery).

Melbourne has produced the most Rhodes Scholars of any Victorian university, including the two 2006 winners. The University also administers the Rae and Edith Bennett Travelling Scholarship for its graduates to complete postgraduate degrees in the United Kingdom.

The numbers of international students have grown from 2,000 in 1996 to over 11,000 in 2008. A separate venture, Melbourne University Private was created in 1997(Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E battery), and merged with the university at the end of 2005 following the easing of Commonwealth regulations to allow domestic full-fee places in Australian universities.

These faculties offer courses from Bachelor Degree to Doctorate level. Arts is the largest (7,222 students in 2004), followed by Science (6,328). The university has some of the highest admission requirements in the country, with the median ENTER of its undergraduates being 94.10(Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E/H battery). Furthermore, the university has the highest proportion of enrolments of any institution for applicants with an ENTER of 99.0 or above (those who finish in the top 1% of school leavers), with 61.6% of these applicants enrolling at Melbourne. Overall attrition and retention rates at the university are the lowest and highest respectively in Australia.

[edit]Research(Sony VAIO VGN-FW465J battery)

In 2010 Melbourne spent $767.5m on research, and has consistently ranked first or second on the major national research indicators which are used by the Australian Government to allocate public funds for research and training infrastructure. Pure and applied research had already grown in importance from the late 19th century, but increased its reach and depth in the second half of the 20th century(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M battery). Science and Arts are the best-endowed faculties in financial terms.[citation needed] The medical sciences benefit from proximity to a number of hospitals, and were enhanced by the opening of Bio21, a research centre focusing on pure and applied Biotechnology. Melbourne has the highest numbers of Federal Government Australian Postgraduate Awards and Postgraduate Research International Scholarships(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J battery), as well as the largest totals of Research Higher Degree (RHD) student load (3,222 students in 2010) and RHD completions (715 in 2010). In 2008, Melbourne's research income totalled $380 million.

In 2010, Melbourne researchers were awarded the largest number of ARC funding grants in Australia, worth more than $42.8 million. The research funding flowed to University of Melbourne researchers after their successful performance in 2011(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z battery) Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage and Discovery Grants. The University of Melbourne was the leading recipient of ARC Discovery funding with $37.6 million in project grants. The remaining $5.3 million received for Linkage Grants drew complementary industry support in excess of $20 million(Sony VGN-NR11Z Battery).

In November 2011, University of Melbourne researchers received almost $30 million in ARC grants to assist with a range of projects, from looking at new ways of monitoring urban sustainability, creating a new approach in dealing with coronary arterial blood flow to developing new low carbon cements(Sony VGN-NR11S Battery).

Residential colleges

Since 1872, the affiliated residential colleges have been an important part of the university. The earliest sought to emulate the finest European colleges, particularly those of Oxford. There are eleven affiliated colleges in total. Seven of the colleges are situated in an arc around the cricket oval at the northern edge of the campus, known as the College Crescent, with the other five within 15 minutes' walk of the University of Melbourne(Sony VGN-NR110E Battery).

Architecture

Several of the original on-campus buildings, such as the Old Quad and Old Arts buildings, feature beautiful period architecture.

The expansion during the post-World War Two period saw the construction of a number of functional high-rise office buildings and laboratories, in response to space shortages. These include the Raymond Priestley building (used for administration and nicknamed the "Wind Tunnel" due to the channelling of wind through its ground level arches) (Sony VGN-NR110E/T Battery), the Redmond Barry building, Wilson Hall (1956, replacing the old Wilson Hall which was destroyed by fire), and some of the additions to the colleges. The Architecture building is a monolithic modernist design - a "strong statement of architectural modernism influenced by Le Corbusier"(Sony VGN-NR110E/S Battery).

Melba Hall and the Conservatorium of Music on Royal Parade are notable examples of Edwardian edifices which features rich Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau details. They were designed by Bates, Peebles & Smart and constructed between 1905 and 1935.

A recent spate of expansions have included the Ian Potter Gallery and the Sidney Myer Asia Centre (both designed by Nonda Katsalidis). (Sony VGN-NR110E/W Battery) The Potter Gallery in particular is highly regarded for its architecture, and won several awards when completed in 1999. The University Square development has extended the campus to the south, significantly opening up the grid-locked Parkville campus.

The façade of the Old Commerce building is listed on the National Trust Register as an interesting artefact(Sony VGN-CR11SR Battery). It is the facade of the former Collins Street Bank of New South Wales Melbourne office transposed on to a 1935 building (as part of the overall building design by architect Percy Everett). The bank earned architect Joseph Reed a first prize in architecture. When the building was demolished, the façade was transferred to the University of Melbourne to become the façade of the then Commerce building(Sony VGN-CR11Z Battery).

Some of the affiliated residential colleges feature notable architecture; the most beautiful is arguably the Ormond College with its large clock tower, but Newman College is also well known as one of the few remaining buildings designed by Walter Burley Griffin. A searchable archive of photos can be used to view individual features of the campus(Sony VGN-CR11S Battery).

Libraries

The Melbourne University Library is one of the busiest libraries in Australia, with three million visitors performing 42 million loan transactions every year. The general collection comprises over 3.5 million items including books, DVDs, photographic slides, music scores, periodicals, as well as rare maps, prints and other published materials. The Library also holds over 32,000 e-books, hundreds of databases and 63,000 general and specialist journals in digital form(Sony VGN-CR11M Battery).

Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library (formerly VCA Library)

Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library

Melbourne School of Land and Environment Library (Burnley, Creswick, Dookie)

Veterinary Science Library

Library personnel also provide advice to staff and students on issues such as copyright, information management, knowledge management, information architecture and the design of business processes(Sony VGN-CR11E Battery).

[edit]Other campuses

The university has several other campuses located across Victoria. They are situated in Burnley, Creswick, Dookie, Werribee, and Southbank, Victorian College of the Arts. The university also has its interests in Goulburn Valley, particularly in the areas of rural health, agriculture and education. The university is a part-owner of the Melbourne Business School, the leading business school in Australia in 2005 and 2006(Sony VGN-CR21E Battery). The university has a node of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics.

Arts and culture

The university is associated with several arts institutions in the wider community. These include:

The Melbourne Theatre Company, the oldest professional theatre company in Australia and one of the largest theatre companies in the English-speaking world. The company is a semi-autonomous department of the university(Sony VGN-CR21S Battery).

The Ian Potter Museum of Art, which houses the university's visual arts collection.

Melbourne University Publishing (formally Melbourne University Press), an academic press which has since diversified into multimedia production as well as books and monographs.

Meanjin, an Australian literary journal.

Thirty-three cultural collections, embodying the history of many of the academic disciplines taught at the university(Sony VGN-CR21Z Battery). These include the Grainger Museum Collection of musical cultural artefacts; the Medical History Museum, covering the history of the medical profession in Victoria; and the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, which contains more than 8,000 specimens relevant to the teaching of medicine and other health sciences(Sony VGN-CR21SR Battery).

The Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation is the only centre of its kind in Australia, combining both theory and practice of cultural material conservation and is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science and the Ian Potter Museum of Art.

The Melbourne University is host to the Future Problem Solving Program Australia (FPSPA) national finals every even year(Sony VGN-CR31S Battery). This is held during mid-October and participants from across Australia attend the University of Melbourne for competition. The Grand Buffet Hall and the Copeland Theatre are the two main locations for ceremonies and competition.

"Growing Esteem" strategy

New strategy

Main article: Melbourne Model

In 2005, the university developed a new strategy, "Growing Esteem", incorporating strands of "Research, Teaching and Learning" and "Knowledge Transfer" (since renamed "Engagement"). Within the teaching and learning strand is a redeveloped curriculum(Sony VGN-CR31E Battery), often referred to as the "Melbourne Model". The six "New Generation degrees" of science, biomedicine, environments, arts, music and commerce were designed to lead to graduation and the workplace, graduate degrees focusing on the professions, or research-oriented higher degrees. The new structure was introduced in 2008, with faculties governing courses in law, medicine(Sony VGN-CR31Z Battery), education and architecture establishing graduate schools to administer master's degrees. PhD candidatures are generally administered through the School of Graduate Research.

Some students and members of the wider community were critical of the Growing Esteem strategy, which came under much scrutiny in the Australian press. The university offers a minimum of 50% of the places in each of the new professional graduate degrees(Sony VGN-CR41Z Battery) - 100% for education and nursing - for domestic Australian students as Commonwealth Supported Places, with the university aiming for 75% across all the new courses. The ability to offer Commonwealth Supported Places to postgraduate students is a first for an Australian university, heralding a new approach to diversity in the higher-education sector by the Howard government and the succeeding Rudd government(Sony VGN-CR41S Battery).

Youth Allowance and Austudy has been extended to Commonwealth-approved master's degrees by coursework programs. The university is undertaking a $100-million-dollar scholarship program, funded by its significant invested endowment, course fees and other private ventures. Over 8000 students are expected to receive benefits. 20% of places in the new degrees will be allocated to the "Access Melbourne" programme(Sony VGN-CR41E Battery).

Reaction to the "Melbourne Model"

Various groups, including trade and student unions, academics, and some students have expressed criticism of the Melbourne Model, citing job and subject cuts, and a risk of "dumbing down" content. A group of students also produced a satirical musical regarding the matter.

In 2012 however, two of the university's redeveloped courses, the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Science(Sony VGN-CR41SR Battery), were the most popular undergraduate courses with incoming undergraduates in the state of Victoria. Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre data shows first preference applications for Melbourne University degrees rose by 21 percent overall from 2011, the largest increase in Victoria. There was also a 24 percent increase in applications through the Access Melbourne program for disadvantaged students(Sony VGN-CR42Z Battery), including large increases for those from rural areas and low socio-economic backgrounds[citation needed]. Melbourne has five of the 10 most sought degrees in the state, a level of demand which reflects the growing awareness of the university's redeveloped programs and their attractiveness to students from all backgrounds(Sony VGN-CR42S Battery).

VCA merger and controversy

The university's 2007 acquisition of the Victorian College of the Arts and subsequent plans to introduce the new curriculum at the campus attracted attention and criticism within the wider community. As of May 2009 the university "suspended" the Bachelor of Music Theatre and Puppetry courses at the college and there were fears they may not return under the new curriculum(Sony VGN-CR42E Battery).

A 2005 heads of agreement over the merger of the VCA and the university stated that the management of academic programs at the VCA would ensure that "the VCA continues to exercise high levels of autonomy over the conduct and future development of its academic programs so as to ensure their integrity and quality" and also that the college's identity will be preserved(Sony Vaio VGN-CR11S/L Battery). New dean Sharman Pretty outlined drastic changes under the university's plan for the college in early April 2009. As a result it is now being called into question whether the university have upheld that agreement.

Staff at the college responded to the changes, claiming the university did not value vocational arts training, and voicing fears over the future of quality training at the VCA. Former Victorian arts minister Race Matthews has also weighed in on the debate expressing his hope that(Sony Vaio VGN-CR11S/P Battery), "Melbourne University will not proceed with its proposed changes to the Victorian College of the Arts," and for 'good sense' to prevail.

In November 2009, in response to these criticisms, the university named Ziggy Switkowski, the Chair of Opera Australia and former Telstra CEO, the independent chair of an open and extensive consultation and review of the Faculty of the VCA and Music (VCAM) (Sony Vaio VGN-CR11S/W Battery). He was joined by the Hon Mary Delahunty, a former Victorian Government Arts Minister and a journalist and writer, as a community representative with a background in the arts. These appointments followed the release of the "Defining the Future" discussion paper, which signaled the beginning of an extensive consultation on the key challenges and opportunities facing the VCA and the university in higher arts education. Members of the Review Committee were drawn from VCAM staff and students and the wider university(Sony Vaio VGN-CR11Z/R Battery). After and intensive five-month stakeholder consultation on the future of the VCA and the Music, Switkowski delivered his report.

In response to the Switkowski review, the university appointed two senior staff to help lead the Faculty of the VCA and Music, naming Su Baker (Director, VCA) and Gary McPherson (Director, Melbourne Conservatorium) while it searched for a new dean to lead the faculty of the VCA and music. In December 2010, the university named Barry Conyngham(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13/B Battery), a prominent Australian composer and former holder of the Harvard Chair in Australian Studies and former Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University, as Dean of the Faculty of the VCA and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

In 2011, the Victorian State Government allocated $24 million to support arts education at the VCA and the faculty was renamed the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13/L Battery).

The University of Melbourne has been consistently ranked top 100 universities worldwide by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (ARWU), Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings since their publication. The university was ranked 31st in the 2011 QS World University Rankings. The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) (Sony Vaio VGN-CR13/P Battery)has also ranked Melbourne University ahead of any other Universities in the southern hemisphere and placed it in the top 100 worldwide (together with Sydney University) since its publication.

With regard to rankings by broad subjects, The University of Melbourne has been consistently ranked top 100 worldwide for biomedicine, life and agriculture science, business, law, education, engineering, arts and humanities and social sciences(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13/R Battery), according to Times Higher Education, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (ARWU), The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) and the Melbourne Institute. Moreover, Melbourne University is the only one Australian institution ranked top 30 worldwide across all subjects by Times Higher Education 2009(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13/W Battery). This prominent position is also confirmed by 3 other ranking systems, with Melbourne possessing more academic disciplines ranked top 100 in the world than any other Australian institutions.

Research produced by the Melbourne Institute in 2006 ranked Australian universities across seven main discipline areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G Battery), Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Science, with Melbourne University as the highest in business, law and medicine by both academic surveys and overall performance.

Notable graduates

Main article: List of University of Melbourne people

The University of Melbourne has produced many notable alumni, with graduates having held the offices of Prime Ministers of Australia, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Governor-General, Attorney-General, Governor of Victoria, High Court Justices(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G/B Battery), State Premiers, Nobel Laureates, a First Lady of East Timor, ministers of foreign countries, Lord Mayors, academics, architects, historians, poets, philosophers, politicians, scientists, physicists, authors, industry leaders, Defence Force generals, corporate leaders and artists.

[edit]Student activities

The university student life is reflected by the variety of clubs and services funded by the University of Melbourne Student Union(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G/L Battery). Student extracurricular activities generally come under the loose umbrella of the University of Melbourne Student Union, student sporting activities under the Sports Union, and postgraduate students at University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association (a member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations). Many student clubs are affiliated with UMSU, (Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G/W Battery) as well as student theatre and the official student newspaper, Farrago. A scandal engulfed the Union in 2003, eventually leading to its collapse, liquidation and subsequent rebirth as a new entity. However, given the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism from 1 July 2006, services and activities offered by this new Union have diminished. The shortfall in funding from declining membership has been offset to an extent by a recurrent grant from the university(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G/P Battery).

Prosh Week

A celebrated tradition at Melbourne, usually held in mid-August, whereby teams of students engage in various activities - the winner claiming the 'Prosh Week Trophy'. These shenanigans include giant boat races, conga lines through the Melbourne CBD, a billy kart rally, and jelly wrestling. It culminates with the infamous Scav hunt, at the conclusion of which the winning team is announced(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13G/R Battery).

The term 'Prosh' is thought to have originated in one of two ways. It is chiefly considered to have evolved from an annual charity procession that once marched through the Melbourne CBD, producing the abbreviation 'prosh'. A second theory states that the term originated from when all of the faculty social balls were held in the same week. (Sony Vaio VGN-CR13T/L Battery) The week was nicknamed 'Posh week' due to the number of times students would have to dress up in formal attire. The effects of alcohol caused words to be slurred, and thus 'posh' became 'prosh'.

Sport

The university has participated in various sports in its history, and currently has 39 affiliated clubs. Sport is overseen by Melbourne University Sport. Melbourne was the overall champion in the Australian University Games (AUG) in 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2006(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13T/P Battery).

Beaurepaire Centre and Sports Centre

The Beaurepaire Centre is a two-storey health and fitness complex located on the campus. It houses a strength and fitness gym; and an indoor, heated, 6-lane, 25m lap pool. The Sports Centre is also located on campus, and houses a Group Fitness venue, a Yoga and Pilates venue, six squash courts, massage and physiotherapy clinic, a variety of multipurpose rooms(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13T/R Battery), two multipurpose basketball stadiums, and the main Melbourne University Sport administration offices.

Tennis

The Melbourne University Tennis Club, is one of the oldest sporting clubs at the University. It was one of the founding clubs of the Melbourne University Sports Union (now known as the Melbourne University Sports Association). The club actively participates in state & regional competitions, provides weekly internal competitions to its members(Sony Vaio VGN-CR13T/W Battery), and has a growing coaching program. The club's most notable victory of recent times occurred in the Winter of 2009, the Women's team won the Bayside Regional Tennis Association's Section 1 Premiership. The team was also awarded the Butterworth Trophy, which recognised that the Melbourne University Tennis team's performance surpassed the performance of the other 88 teams in the association(Sony Vaio VGN-CR150E/B Battery).

Cricket

The ground of Melbourne University Cricket Club in Parkville

The University of Melbourne Cricket Club, often called simply "University", plays the sport of cricket in the elite club competition of Melbourne, Australia, known as Victorian Premier Cricket. The club was founded in 1856 and played its first season of premier cricket in 1906–07. Also known as The Students, the club has won 3 first XI premierships. Its home ground is on the campus of the University of Melbourne in Parkville(Sony Vaio VGN-CR190 Battery).

Australian Rules football

The Melbourne University Football Club founded in 1859, was a notable Australian Rules football club that played seven seasons in the Victorian Football League, and has since rejoined the ranks of amateur teams.

The women's club, the Mugars, participates in the Victorian Women's Football League and is the most successful women's football team in the country(Sony Vaio VGN-CR190E/L Battery).

Melbourne University women's football player jostles for best position in a marking contest.

Rugby Union football

The Melbourne University Rugby Football Club celebrated its 100th birthday in 2008 and is one of Victoria's major Rugby Union clubs, having won many premierships over the years. Most recently, the under-20s Colts team took out the 2008 premiership. Former celebrity members include Sir Edward Dunlop(Sony Vaio VGN-CR190E/P Battery), the first Victorian to represent Australia in rugby union and a notable survivor of Japanese POW camps during World War II.

Association football

The Melbourne University Blues was founded in 1947 and has maintained a consistent presence in Victoria's provisional leagues. The Melbourne University Rangers was founded as an amateur club in 1980 but has successfully moved into the professional leagues and, in 2008, won promotion to Division 3 of the Victorian State League(Sony Vaio VGN-CR190E/R Battery).

Hockey

The University has hockey teams that compete in the Hockey Victoria competition. It is colloquially known as "Shop" or "Shoppers" to its members, and MUHC (pronounced "muck") to its rivals. The men's division has competed in State League One (the premier division) irregularly (most recently 2004 and 2006), often gaining promotion from State League Two only to be relegated the following year(Sony Vaio VGN-CR190E/W Battery). The women's division had a State League One team in 2003-2005, and since being relegated have maintained a mid-SL2 position since.

It traditionally fields strong AUG hockey teams, winning the Syme Cup (men's division) in 1999 and 2000 and placing 2nd in 2001, 2005-07. Its best result in the women's competition has been second (2000, 2003) (Sony Vaio VGN-CR21/B Battery).

Lacrosse

The Melbourne University Lacrosse Club (MULC) was established in 1883 and is the oldest continually operational lacrosse club in the world. It competes locally in the Lacrosse Victoria competition, and in its long history has won 10 premierships in the men's State League competition. The Club also has a junior program conducted through the Melbourne High School(Sony Vaio VGN-CR21E/L Battery). The MULC takes part in an annual competition against the Adelaide University Lacrosse Club, with the venue alternating between Adelaide and Melbourne each year.

Cycling

The Melbourne University Cycling Club (MUCyc) is associated with Cycling Australia and competes regularly at local and national races. In 2008 MUCyc won its seventh consecutive AUG championship (2002–2008). MUCyc placed second in the 2009 University games, but wrested back the crown from UWA in 2010(Sony Vaio VGN-CR21E/P Battery).