The University of Melbourne

and
Newman Residential College

The University of Melbourne is located in Parkville directly north of the central business district (CBD). The University was founded in 1853 by an Act of Parliament just two years after the founding of the Univeristy of Sydney, making Melbourne University the second oldest in Australia. The Old Quadrangle, the university's oldest standing building, was laid in April of 1854. Today the university occupies some 50 acres of land with an enrollment of 36,000 students and employing 5400 staff persons.
     Through years of prodigious growth the Parkville campus has become tightly packed. Some of the buildings are old enough to be designated as heritage protected, meaning their external presentation must be preserved. This circumstance is unfortunate, as some of the older facades are quite plain, if not ugly, and the space they encompass is in need of renovation. The Masson Chemistry Building is counted among the number of buildings that fall in this class. On the other hand, the very first buildings are very nicely appointed and stately. This is not to say that the younger the building is the worse its architecture is. There are many university buildings that are architectural joys despite their young age. Despite this mixture the university is a vibrant place with lots of student use and activity.
    In 2005 Melbourne University was chosen as number 19 in the world ranking of universities. This is a number that is putting enormous pressure on the faculty and staff, as the administration is seeking to improve this position in the standings. It has launched a new initiative dubbed Growing Esteem which seeks to revamp the curriculum toward the Bologna model of three years of general undergraduate studies across multiple disciplines followed by two years of more advanced study in a particular field. This would produce a masters degree or some other technical degree of specialization. Currently, students who attend Uni study only in their chosen major subject for three years and may choose, if qualified, to do an "honors year" of study, which usually focuses on a research project. This fourth year will be lost in the shuffle.
Below you can see some of the images I took while walking around the campus.

Old Quadrangle south entrance	Old Quadrangle courtyard
The ceiling work in the alcove	Students making their way to classes
Old Quadrangle architectual attribution	Workers revolt commemoration
Old Quadrangle is heritage listed and protected	The bottom of the Raymond Priestley administration building
Student union: Union House	Union Lawn in front of the Union
Deakin Courtyard on the side of the Union House	Same courtyard from different perspective
The Old Commerce building is comprised of a vanilla building behind this splendid facade recycled from an 1856 bank in Collins Street (City).	The Brownless Biomedical Library
Masson Chemistry Building	Administration building, the Raymond Priestley Building.
Steps up to the South Lawn from the main library	Professors' Walk
University's main library	Historical statue
Entrance to Baillieu Library	Plaque under the historical statue provides a short history to the statue.
Upper South Lawn area	Lower South Lawn area
Looking south from the walk	Looking north toward the Masson chemistry building
Steps up to the South Lawn	The Old Arts building
This sign directs folks to the various campus buildings from what is known as Professors' Walk.	Behind the trees lies the John Medley Buildings. The stairs through the center lead to the south lawn.
South entrance looking at the CBD. That large dark cylinder looking building is about one km away in the center of the CBD.	Another view from the south entrance. The open space with the trees is called University Square.