Victorian Current Acts Victorian Current ActsPreamble
Monash University was established under the Monash University Act 1958 . A proclamation made under that Act on 27 May 1958 fixed 30 May 1958 as the date on which Monash University was incorporated as a body politic and corporate.
The University's creation was in part a response to the changing profile and aspirations of the State of Victoria, including demand for greater access to higher education from the public and new industries that required advanced scientific and conceptual skills. The University was granted Crown land at Clayton where it established a campus amidst what was to become one of the fastest growing population centres in Victoria. The first 357 students were admitted in 1961 and by 1970 more than 10 000 students were enrolled.
Monash University quickly distinguished itself by the quality of its education and research. Its outstanding achievements in areas such as reproductive medicine, engineering, law, bioethics and injury prevention research created a public profile for the University. Those achievements were matched by education and research across the full range of sciences, humanities and social sciences. Monash's graduates soon began to take leading places in business, politics and community organisations in Victoria, nationally and abroad.
Under the Monash University (Chisholm and Gippsland) Act 1990 , the Chisholm Institute of Technology, with campuses at Caulfield and Frankston, and the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education at Churchill, merged with Monash University with effect from 1 July 1990.
Under the Monash University (Pharmacy College) Act 1992 , the Victorian College of Pharmacy at Parkville, founded in 1881, merged with and became a College of Monash University. The Victorian College of Pharmacy operates today as the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Monash University.
In 1996 Monash University was granted Crown land at Berwick and established a
campus there.
The new Victorian campuses greatly expanded the University's scale and made it the first Australian university of its standing to operate campuses in rural and outer-metropolitan communities.
Since the late 1990s, Monash has emerged as the most international of Australia's universities, true to the spirit of its earliest years when it hosted a large number of Colombo Plan scholars. Monash University was the first international university invited by the Malaysian Government to establish a research intensive university in Malaysia. The Monash Sunway Campus was opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998 in partnership with the Sunway group of companies.
In 1999 Monash University purchased land in Johannesburg, South Africa where it established a wholly owned campus known as Monash South Africa and admitted the first students in 2001.
The University's international campuses are complemented by a Centre in Italy and a joint research-training Academy in India as well as a host of international education and research alliances.
Today, Monash University is set apart by a unique profile of research and educational excellence and an outward-looking spirit that is manifest in its operations across 4 continents. Founded in a period of great change for the State of Victoria, it remains committed to education and research that promotes innovation, responds to pressing societal challenges and enriches the lives of its students, staff and the general community.
To enable Monash University to better support and continue its unique trajectory of research and educational excellence engaged with communities around the globe, it is expedient to re-enact the law relating to Monash University in a more modern form.
The Parliament of Victoria therefore enacts: