Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958. The university has a number of campuses, four of which are in Victoria (Clayton, Caulfield, Peninsula, and Parkville), one in Malaysia and another one in Indonesia. Monash has a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy, a graduate research school in Mumbai, India and graduate schools in Suzhou, China and Tangerang, Indonesia.
Monash hosts a number of research facilities, including the Monash Law School, the Australian Synchrotron, the Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct (STRIP), the Australian Stem Cell Centre, Victorian College of Pharmacy, and 100 research centres and 17 co-operative research centres. In 2019, its revenue was over $2.72 billion (AUD), with external research income around $462 million. In 2019, Monash enrolled over 55,000 undergraduate and over 25,000 postgraduate students.
Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight research universities, a member of the ASAIHL, and is the only Australian member of the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, Universities and National Academies. It is one of the Australian universities ranked in the École des Mines de Paris (Mines ParisTech) ranking on the basis of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.
History
right|thumb|Statue of [[Sir John Monash at the Clayton Campus]]
right|thumb|The [[Robert Menzies Building at the Clayton Campus]]
Early history: 1950s
Established by an Act of Parliament in 1958, the original campus was in the suburb of Clayton where the university was granted an expansive site of 100 hectares of open land. The 100 hectares of land consisted of farmland and included the former Talbot Epileptic Colony. The Tudor-style farmhouse built by the O'Shea family became the original Vice-Chancellor's House - now University House.
In 1961, the university enrolled 357 students at Clayton. By 1967, enrollment reached 21,000 students. In its early years, it offered undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering, medicine, science, arts, economics, politics, education, and law. It was a major provider for international student places under the Colombo Plan, which saw the first Asian students enter the Australian education system.
The university was named after the prominent Australian general Sir John Monash. This was the first time in Australia that a university had been named after a person, rather than a city or state.
1970s onwards
From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Monash became the centre of student radicalism in Australia. It was the site of many mass student demonstrations, particularly concerning Australia's role in the Vietnam War and conscription. By the late 1960s, several student organisations, some of which were influenced by or supporters of communism, turned their focus to Vietnam, with numerous blockades and sit-ins. In an event later known as the Monash Siege, students forced then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to hide in a basement at the Alexander Theatre, in a major protest over the Whitlam dismissal.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, some of Monash's most publicised research came through its pioneering of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Led by Carl Wood and Alan Trounson, the Monash IVF Program achieved the world's first clinical IVF pregnancy in 1973. In 1980, they delivered the first IVF baby in Australia.
In the late 1980s, the Dawkins Reforms changed the landscape of higher education in Australia. Under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Mal Logan, Monash expanded further. In 1988, Monash University had only one campus in Clayton, with around 15,000 students. Around a decade later, it had 8 campuses (including 2 overseas), a European research and teaching centre, and more than 50,000 students, making it the largest and most internationalised Australian university.
Expansion in the 1990s
In 1990, a series of mergers between Monash, the Chisholm Institute of Technology, and the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education began. In 1991 a merger with the Victorian College of Pharmacy created a new faculty of the university. This continued in 1994, with the establishment of the Berwick campus.
In 1998, the university opened the Malaysia campus, its first overseas campus and the first foreign university in Malaysia. In 2001, Monash South Africa opened in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, the first foreign university in South Africa. The same year, the university secured an 18th-century Tuscan palace to open a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy.
An increase in international students and the university's expansion contributed to increased income throughout the 1990s. It has since ranked as one of Australia's top 200 exporters.
2000 onwards
thumb|The Biomedical Learning and Teaching Building at Clayton Campus right|thumb|The Learning and Teaching Building at Clayton Campus
right|thumb|The Green Chemical Futures Building at Clayton Campus
In recent years, the university has been prominent in medical research. In 2000, when Alan Trounson led the team of scientists which announced to the world that nerve stem cells could be derived from embryonic stem cells, a discovery which led to a dramatic increase in interest in the potential of stem cells. It has also led to Monash being ranked in the top 20 universities in the world for biomedicine.
On 21 October 2002, Huan Yun "Allen" Xiang, shot two people dead and injured five others on the Clayton campus.
Since December 2011, Monash has had a global alliance with the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, the university ceded its Gippsland campus to Federation University. On 15 July 2016, Monash confirmed that Federation University Australia would take over the operations of the Berwick campus prior to the end of 2018.
In 2019, the university sold its Monash South Africa campus to Advtech. Students who were on schedule to complete their degree on time would still receive a degree from Monash University after the sale. The reason for the sale was reported to be low profitability and low enrolment numbers. Prior to the sale, Monash University had sidelined the South African campus on its official websites and did not refer to it as a 'campus' unlike Monash Malaysia.
Monash announced an Indonesian campus in December 2020. The university plans to open its campus doors in October 2021, located in BSD City, Tangerang, Banten. Unlike Monash Malaysia, Monash Indonesia will focus on graduate studies including hosting the Institute for Advanced Research, supported by the Indonesian Scholarship and Research Support Foundation.
Campuses and buildings
Australia
Clayton
thumb|The [[Australian Synchrotron is located adjacent to university's Clayton Campus]]
The Clayton campus covers an area over 1.1 km<sup>2</sup> and is the largest of the Monash campuses. Clayton is the flagship campus for Monash, demanding higher ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) scores than all the other campuses, with the exception of Parkville. Clayton is home to the faculties of Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Information Technology, Law, Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and Science. The Clayton campus has its own suburb and postcode (3800).
Various major scientific research facilities are located on or adjacent to the campus. Chief among these are the Australian Synchrotron and CSIRO.
The campus is also home to numerous restaurants and retail outlets, as well as student bars: Sir John's (located in the Campus Centre) and the Notting Hill Hotel (located down the street, founded in 1891), both of which are hubs of social life on the campus.
alt=Sir Louis Matheson Library, Monash Clayton Campus|thumb|Sir Louis Matheson Library at the Clayton Campus
The campus is also home to a number of halls of residence, colleges and other on-campus accommodations that house several thousand students. Six halls of residence are located at the Clayton campus in Clayton, Victoria. There is an additional private residential college affiliated with the university. The Clayton campus contains the Robert Blackwood Hall, named after the university's founding chancellor Sir Robert Blackwood and designed by Sir Roy Grounds.
Caulfield
right|thumb| Caulfield Library at the Caulfield Campus
The Caulfield campus is Monash University's second-largest. Its multifaceted nature is reflected in the range of programs it offers through the faculties of Arts, Art Design & Architecture (MADA), Business & Economics, and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. A major building program has been announced to expand teaching facilities, provide student accommodation, and redevelop the shopping centre.
The Alfred
Located in The Alfred Hospital, Monash University's Alfred campus houses the Central Clinical School and the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, which contains the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Forensic Medicine.
Parkville
The Parkville campus is located on Royal Parade in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville, around 2 km north of the Melbourne CBD. The campus is home to the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The faculty specialises in pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical and formulation science, and medicinal chemistry. The campus also offers postgraduate degrees, including the Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Clinical Pharmacy.
Peninsula
The Peninsula campus has a teaching and research focus on health and wellbeing, and is a hub of undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Nursing, Health Science, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Psychology - and particularly in Emergency Health (Paramedic) courses.
The campus is located in the bayside suburb of Frankston on the edge of Melbourne.
The Peninsula campus also offers a range of courses including those from its historic roots with early childhood and primary education (during the 1960s and 1970s, the campus was the State Teachers' College), and Business & Economics (since the merger of the State Teachers' College with the Caulfield Institute of Technology to create the Chisholm Institute of Technology in 1982). The campus was also home to the Peninsula School of Information Technology, which in 2006 was wound back with Information Technology units previously offered being relocated to the Caulfield campus.
City
The centrally located Monash Law City Campus houses the postgraduate Faculty of Law. It provides teaching for the Monash Law Masters and JD programmes. This campus is well placed within Melbourne's legal precinct, allowing students to have easy access to the surrounding courts.
International
Malaysia
thumb|Monash University Malaysia campus
thumb|The city of [[Suzhou, Jiangsu|Suzhou where Southeast-Monash Joint Graduate School located]]
The Monash University Malaysia campus opened in 1998 in Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia. The Sunway campus offers various undergraduate degrees through its faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Engineering, Information Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Pharmacy and Science. It is currently home to over 8,489 students. A purpose-built campus opened in 2007. Its degrees in Medicine and Surgery are the first medical degrees outside Australia and New Zealand accredited by the Australian Medical Council.
Italy
thumbnail|right|The Palazzo Vaj, where the [[Monash University, Prato Centre|Monash University Prato Centre is located]]
The Monash University Prato Centre is located in the 18th-century palace, Palazzo Vaj, in the historic centre of Prato, a city near Florence in Italy. Primarily, it hosts staff and students from Monash's other campuses for semesters in Law, Art Design & Architecture, History, Music, and Criminology as well as various international conferences. It was officially opened on 17 September 2001 as part of the university's vigorous internationalisation policy.
India
The IITB-Monash Research Academy opened in 2008 and is situated in Mumbai, India. It is a partnership between Monash and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. It aims to carry out high impact research in engineering and sciences, particularly clean energy, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Students undertake their research in both India and Australia, with supervisors from both Monash and IITB. Upon graduating, they receive a dual PhD from the two institutions. In the month following its official opening, 36 joint projects had commenced, with a further several hundred planned.
In August 2015, Christopher Pyne, Australian Minister for Education and Training, officially opened the new Monash-IITB Research Academy Building in Mumbai, India.
Suzhou, China
In 2012, it was announced that Monash had won a licence to develop a joint graduate school with Southeast University (Nanjing) in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School is the first Australian university, and the third foreign university, to win a licence to operate in China. The school offers master's degrees and PhDs in science and engineering, with an initial cohort of 500 students, building up to 2000 in the years to come.
Indonesia
The Monash University, Indonesia, opened its doors in October 2021, focusing on postgraduate programs offering master's degree and PhDs. Currently the campus offers several Master's degree programs including: Data Science, Cybersecurity, Urban Design, Business Innovation, Public Policy & Management, Marketing & Digital Communications, Public Health, and Sustainability. The campus is located in BSD City, Tangerang, Banten.
The campus plans to expand to undergraduate courses from July 2026, with bachelor degrees in design, digital business, and information technology.
Former campuses
Gippsland
As part of the university's expansion in the 1990s, Monash took over the operations of the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in 1990.
The Gippsland campus provided courses via distance education. However, between 2005 and 2010, many of these programs were transferred to city campuses, thus losing their appeal to regional areas. At its peak enrolment in 2007, the campus was home to 2,000 on-campus students, 5,000 off-campus students and nearly 400 staff. The campus was located in the Latrobe Valley town of Churchill. Until 2014, it was the only non-metropolitan campus of Monash University.
The Gippsland campus had on-campus accommodation including the self-catering West House and East House.
Ballarat University joined with Monash University's Gippsland campus to form a new regional university known as Federation University Australia from 1 January 2014, so this campus is no longer part of Monash.
Berwick
The former Berwick campus of Monash University was built on the old Casey airfield in the south-eastern growth corridor of Victoria, Australia. With a presence in the area since 1994, the first Monash Berwick campus building was completed in 1996 and the third building in March 2004. It was situated on a 55-hectare site in the City of Casey, then one of the three fastest growing municipalities in Australia. Monash announced the closure of this campus to staff and students on 7 March 2016. On 15 July 2016 it was announced that Federation University Australia would take responsibility for the Berwick Campus from 2017 pending government approvals. This officially commenced on 1 January 2018, as a campus of Federation University Australia.
South Africa
In August 2013, Monash University entered a partnership with Laureate International Universities to establish a campus in South Africa. This effort was short-lived, and Monash elected to transfer ownership of the campus to the Independent Institute of Education (IIE) South Africa in 2015. The transfer was concluded in 2019. After Gardner was appointed Governor of Victoria in 2023, Susan Elliott AM took over as interim VC, until the appointment of Sharon Pickering in February 2024, as 10th vice-chancellor and president of the university.
Megan Clark AC was appointed chancellor in 2024. Deputy Chancellors are Geraldine Johns-Putra, Peter Young AM KC, and John Simpson AM.
Faculties and departments
Monash is divided into 10 faculties. These incorporate the university's major departments of teaching and research centres.
The faculties are:
- Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (MADA)
- Faculty of Arts
- Faculty of Business and Economics
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Information Technology
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
- Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Faculty of Science
Various other academic organisations exist alongside the faculties and research centres.
Academic profile
Research and publications
Monash University staff produce over 3,000 research publications each year, with research conducted in over 150 fields of study. Major interdisciplinary research centres include the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, the Monash University Accident Research Centre, and the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science. Some notable research centres also located at or affiliated with Monash University include the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, and the Monash Institute of Medical Research.
Some of the university's notable research achievements include the world's first IVF pregnancy, the first seatbelt legislation, the discovery of the anti-influenza drug Relenza (Zanamivir), the discovery that nerve stem cells could be derived from embryonic stem cells, and the development of a single-use oral anti-malaria drug.
Monash Sustainable Development Institute
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The Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI) was an interdisciplinary research institute with a focus on sustainable development, that included researchers from all 10 faculties of the university. In 2026, the institute was shut down, with its programs and operations moving, for the most part, into individual faculties or portfolios. it comprised more than 150 staff and PhD students. MSDI worked with industry and government, civil society, and other academics, and used the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide its work. MSDI included four centres focusing on specific capabilities:
- Working with Water, now a collaboration between Water Sensitive Cities Australia and RISE, is focused on solving issues relating to water use in urban environments, and access to safe water for all. operates as an independent not-for-profit within Monash, and focuses on climate transition in Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific region. It is headed by CEO Anna Skarbek, who was appointed executive director at its inception. The centre won a Eureka Prize, worth , for its first project in 2010. The project was a "low-carbon growth plan to measure the costs and benefits for business". The centre is not aligned to a faculty and will be administered by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).
Its collection had grown to over 1500 works by 2008, including artworks by Arthur Boyd, William Dobell, Sidney Nolan, Howard Arkley, Tracey Moffatt, John Perceval, Fred Williams and Bill Henson. While the gallery's focus is on contemporary Australian art, it houses a number of international works and exhibitions. It hosts regular exhibitions which are open to Monash students and staff, as well as the general public.
the curator is Charlotte Day, while the advisory committee is chaired by Dean Shane Murray and includes Louise Adler and Maudie Palmer AO, founding director of the TarraWarra Museum of Art and Heide Museum of Modern Art.
Galleries and exhibitions
==== MADA Gallery ====<!---redirects target this section--->
Known as the Faculty Gallery between 1999 and 2012, the MADA Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located at the university's Caulfield Campus. It is used for teaching and exhibitions. The gallery exhibits solo and group shows by academic and professional staff, local, interstate and international artists and curators, and also hosts artist in residency programs.
Tuition, loans and financial aid
For international students starting in 2025, tuition fees range from to per academic year for award programs lasting at least one year. Domestic students may be offered a federally-subsidised Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) which substantially decreases the student contribution amount billed to the student. The maximum student contribution amount limits that can be applied to CSP students are dependent on the field of study.
The university also offers several scholarships, which come in the form of bursaries or tuition fee remission.
Academic reputation
In the 2024 Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities, which measures aggregate performance across the QS, THE and ARWU rankings, the university attained a position of #50 (3rd nationally).
; National publications
In the Australian Financial Review Best Universities Ranking 2025, the university was ranked #4 amongst Australian universities.
; Global publications
In the 2026 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (published 2025), the university attained a tied position of #36 (5th nationally).
In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 (published 2025), the university attained a tied position of #58 (3rd nationally).
In the 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities, the university attained a position of #76 (4th nationally).
In the 2025–2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities, the university attained a position of #38 (4th nationally).
In the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2024, the university attained a position of #51 (4th nationally).
Student outcomes
The Australian Government's QILT