Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its name is taken from Sir

Walter Murdoch Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, (17 September 187430 July 1970) was a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence and wit. He was a founding professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western A ...

(1874–1970), the Founding Professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western Australia. Murdoch is a verdant university and a member of the Innovative Research Universities. In 2018, Murdoch University was recognised as producing the most employable graduates of all Australian universities after 3 years of graduating from their courses. In 2019, the university ranked third in overall student satisfaction amongst all public universities in Western Australia.

History

In 1962, the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

earmarked an area of land in Bull Creek to be the site of a future, second, state university. Integral to the planning of the creation of Western Australia's second university was the planning for the School of Veterinary Science, which was to be the first professional faculty of the new university. It was decided that the new university would be named after Sir Walter Murdoch, a prominent local author, philosopher, and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Australia. When asked if he minded a new university in Western Australia being named in his honour, he was quoted as saying, "No, but it had better be a good one." Murdoch University was formally constituted on 25 July 1973. It was opened with an inauguration ceremony on 17 September 1974. This date was chosen as it was Sir Walter Murdoch's 100th birthday. The

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Sir John Kerr, attended the ceremony as the guest of honour. Lectures began in 1975, with 510 students initially enrolled for undergraduate programs. At the time, the young university was notable for its admissions policy of taking into consideration eligibility factors other than the school leaving exam results of students. Other universities later came to adopt this more holistic perspective of student eligibility for entrance into university education. In late 2018, the university faced scandal subsequent to an enrolment surge of international students, many said to be “lacking English language and computing skills”. In 2019, a ''

Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...

'' investigation by the ABC found further deterioration of standards with allegations of foreign students being recruited as "cash cows". In May 2021, the university unveiled a new brand, replacing the traditional banksia logo with a simplified "MU" logo intended to be "modern and future-focused", as well as signifying the university's commitment to being a "progressive", " free thinking" university.

Campuses

Murdoch University has three Australian campuses : South Street Campus and Rockingham Campus in Perth, and Mandurah Campus.

South Street

The main campus is on South Street, Perth, in the suburb of Murdoch, near the

Kwinana Freeway The Kwinana Freeway is a freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with Mandurah to the south. It is the central section of State Route 2, which continues north as Mitchell Freeway to Cl ...

(). South Street campus is Australia's geographically largest campus at , large enough to accommodate the veterinary school and its animal stocks—the only such school in Western Australia. Most of the southern part of the university consists of paddocks of livestock, farms and renewable energy facilities. The master plan for the campus included an open quadrangle of grass and trees, known as "Bush Court", in the northern part of Murdoch campus, which rises to the highest altitude on campus. The library and first academic buildings flanking this court were designed by R. J. Ferguson, who also designed several buildings on the University of Western Australia campus. According to the foundation ethos of Murdoch University, there were to be no imposing buildings like the University of Western Australia's grand, Mediterranean-style Winthrop Hall, with its imposing clock tower. Rather, the architecture adopts a low-slung form redolent of a homestead, with covered walkways suggesting a hybrid veranda or cloister around the bush court. In the smaller courtyards exotic gardens, including a Chinese garden of rocks and stones, contrast with the bush court. The planting and landscaping were the work of Marion Blackwell. Features of the campus include the Joglo Rahayu (Peace Pavilion), a semi-enclosed pavilion near the Education and Humanities building. A monument to the ongoing association between Murdoch University and Indonesian academic institutions in Java, it acts as storage for the Western Australian Gamelan Orchestra. The university recently established three "myMurdoch Advice" locations across campus, to assist with academic support, general advice about study, wellbeing and specialist advice for international students. A newly renovated Student Hub is located off Bush Court, including a variety of food chains and seating. The university also has a tavern and a restaurant named Sir Walter's. A range of food trucks are also available via the Pop-Up Ref on the east side of the campus. File:Chancellery Building.jpg, Chancellery Building File:Bush Court and original campus buildings.jpg, Bush Court and original campus buildings File:View of Bush Court from Broadwalk.jpg, View of Bush Court from Broadwalk File:Murdoch Building 440 Bower Court 2014 iwelam.jpg, Bower Court in the Social Sciences building File:Peace Pavilion.jpg, Joglo Rahayu or Peace Pavilion File:Economics and commerce Building.jpg, Economics and commerce Building

Rockingham Campus

The Rockingham Campus is located south of central Perth in the suburb of Rockingham (). Opened in 1996, it is co-located with Rockingham Challenger Institute of Technology campus, and features an arts and commerce building. The campus ceased offering undergraduate classes at the end of 2014 due to not enough students attending the campus.

Rockingham Regional Campus Community Library

Rockingham Regional Campus Community Library, located at the Rockingham Campus, is a joint venture between the university, the

City of Rockingham The City of Rockingham is a council and local government area, comprising the south coastal suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth. History Rockingham is located in the southern part of the traditional tribal territory of the ...

and Challenger Institute of Technology. Members of all of these groups have free access to library membership. Membership entitles all patrons to access to Challenger Institute of Technology, university and public library resources at Rockingham.

Mandurah Campus

The Mandurah Campus is located south of central Perth in the suburb of Greenfields, near the regional centre of

Mandurah Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 Australian census, 2 ...

(). Opened in 2004, it is home to the School of Health Professions' Bachelor of Nursing (formally Nursing and Midwifery). In Semester 2, 2015, this degree also became available for study at the South Street Campus. Murdoch University shares the campus with Challenger Institute and John Tonkin College (formerly Mandurah Senior College).

Organisation

Schools

There are nine schools at Murdoch University: *School of Arts *School of Business and Governance *School of Education *School of Engineering and Information Technology *School of Health Professions *School of Law *School of Psychology and Exercise Science *Sir Walter Murdoch School of Public Policy and International Affairs *School of Veterinary and Life Sciences

Asia Research Centre

The Asia Research Centre, founded in 1991, produces multi-disciplinary research in politics, political economy, modes of governance, social change, and policy making. Its distinctive contribution to the research debate is based on the proposition that these factors have their roots in broader processes of conflict and change in society that are connected to the advance of market economies.Asia Research Centre
, Murdoch University The centre encompasses researchers from across Murdoch University. It also regularly engages in collaboration with researchers from other universities around the world. As of 2019, the centre's director was Rikki Kersten.

Student demographics

Murdoch University has more than 23,000 registered students, of which 37% are international students. In November 2008 H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Bin Murbarak Al Nahayan (Minister of Higher Education and Research) opened the Murdoch International Study Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Academic profile

Rankings

The 2021 Times Higher Education World University Rankings has listed Murdoch University in the top 501-600 universities in the world, slipping down from 401 to 500 in previous years, placing the lowest of the four Western Australian universities. The QS World University Rankings placed Murdoch University in the top 571–580 universities in 2021. Webometrics ranked Murdoch University at No. 590 worldwide. The university has dropped in international university league tables, notably the ‘World's Top 100 universities under 50’, having entered at 57th in 2013 and dropped to 68th position in 2017. However, the 2018 Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) identified that Murdoch University graduates had the highest employability level of all Australian universities after three years of graduating, at 96.7%. In the most recent 2019 Student Experience Survey, Murdoch University received an overall student satisfaction rating of 79.8 and a teaching quality rating of 82.3, comparable to most other universities in Western Australia, as well as receiving the second highest rating for student support of all public universities in Western Australia.

Reputation

Murdoch University is a research-intensive institution and a member of Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia). According to '' The Australian'', The Graduate Careers Council of Australia found that Murdoch journalism graduates rated satisfaction with their course at a level within the top five nationally. Murdoch University is the founder of the ACICIS (Australian Consortium for 'In-Country' Indonesian Studies) Study Indonesia program, a non-profit consortium of Australian universities that was established in 1994 to coordinate semester-long study programs at partner universities in Yogyakarta and

Malang Malang (; ) is a landlocked List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of Singhasari, Singhasari Kingdom. It is the second most popul ...

in Indonesia, for Australian university students. The Theology programme at Murdoch was, until its controversial closure in 2021, the most integrated of any Australian University and included a full complement of staff working on-site. The university is one of the partners in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, one of the largest

cohorts Cohort or cohortes may refer to: * Cohort (educational group), a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum * Cohort (floating point), a set of different encodings of the same numerical value * Cohort (military unit), ...

of pregnancy, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood to be carried out anywhere in the world. The ''Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC)'', led by Murdoch University, is a world-leading research institute in metabolic phenotyping, as well as the only facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The ANPC is led by Professor Jeremy K. Nicholson, one of the most renowned academic in the areas of metabolomics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at Murdoch University were at the forefront of studying the long-term biochemistry and symptomatology of the coronavirus, including the discovery of distinct blood signatures of patients who contracted the virus. The university's work with conservation management has including the protection of dugongs through drone-tracking devices, and the use of space technology to track movement patterns of vulnerable whale sharks. Murdoch researchers also work to protect the endangered native black cockatoos. Mudoch was the subject of an ABC Four Corners report on selling of placements and the associated student visas to seemingly unqualified people including those who had been previously rejected for Australian visas. Subsequently, the Department of Home Affairs increased Murdoch's risk rating.

Murdoch University International Study Centres

Murdoch University Dubai

Murdoch University Dubai Murdoch University Dubai is an Australian university campus located in Dubai Knowledge Park, in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; it is a branch campus of Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Murdoch University Dubai was inaugurate ...

is a branch campus, established in 2008 in Dubai International Academic City to cater for the expanding Dubai media and financial sectors, and support Dubai's ambitions in providing an ongoing reserve of regional graduates connected to the demands of the region's booming industries. The campus in Dubai offers degree programs in Commerce, Information Technology and Media and postgraduate programs in Business, Human Resource Management and Education. The Degree programs are fully compatible with those offered in Perth and carry full Australian accreditation as well as being certified by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Government of Dubai.

Murdoch University International Study Centre Singapore

The Murdoch University International Study Centre (MUISC) in Singapore was officially opened in June 2008 by Australian High Commissioner Mr Miles Kupa.

Notable faculty and alumni

Glenn Albrecht Glenn A. Albrecht, born in 1953, was Professor of Sustainability at Murdoch University in Western Australia until his retirement in 2014. He is an honorary fellow in the School of Geosciences of the University of Sydney. In 2008, Albrecht fin ...

– sustainability expert and coined the term

solastalgia Solastalgia () is a neologism, formed by the combination of the Latin words ''sōlācium'' (comfort) and the Greek root ''-algia'' (pain, suffering, grief), that describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change ...

* Visam Ali – Maldivian politician *

Cora Baldock Cora Vellekoop Baldock (born 16 December 1935) is an Australian-Dutch Sociologist. She was president of the The Australian Sociological Association, Australian Sociological Association 1979-1980 and served as a member of the Government of Australi ...

– Sociologist, and former President of the Australian Sociological Association *

Adam Bandt Adam Paul Bandt (born 11 March 1972) is an Australian politician and former industrial lawyer who is the leader of the Australian Greens and federal MP for Melbourne. Previously, he served as co-deputy leader of the Greens from 2012 to 2015 and ...

– Australian politician, current leader of the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...

and MP for Melbourne *

Sarah Bell Sarah Jayne Bell is the City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Honorary Professor of Environmental Engineering at The Bartlett School in University College London ( UCL). She w ...

professor of engineering * Reg Bolton – clown *

Jeremy Callaghan Jeremy Callaghan (born 22 July 1967 in Papua New Guinea) is an Australians, Australian actor whose portrayal of the cute and shy Constable Brian Morley on the popular TV drama ''Police Rescue'' ensured international attention. Callaghan is also ...

– actor * Craig Challen - technical diver and cave explorer, veterinary surgeon, and 2019 co-

Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territo ...

* Leonard Collard – Author, Professor of Indigenous studies at University of Western Australia * Roger Cook – Australian politician in the Labor Party, current WA Health Minister *

Tracey Cross Tracey Nicole Cross, OAM (born 4 December 1972) is an Australian visually impaired swimmer. She won ten medals at three Paralympics, from 1992 to 2000. Personal Cross was born in the Western Australian city of Bunbury on 4 December 1972. Sh ...

– Australian Paralympic swimmer *

Muredach Dynan Muredach Benedict Camillas Dynan (1938–2021) was a university professor and senior academic administrator. Career Dynan was born in Belfast in 1938 where he attended St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast. He then proceeded to Qu ...

- educationist and Pro Vice-Chancellor,

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamatio ...

* James Edelman – justice of the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

and former justice of the

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of A$750,00 ...

and

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

Alan Eggleston Alan Eggleston (born 30 December 1941) is an Australian former politician who served as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1996 to 2014 representing Western Australia. Career Early career He was born in Busselton, Western Aust ...

– Australian politician, former Senator for Western Australia, representing the Liberal Party *

Vivienne Elanta Vivienne Heloise Elanta (22 June 1951 – 16 August 2004) was a Western Australian environmental activist. Personal life Born in Germany, Elanta was the eldest of Gertraud Adler and Robert Neuman's five children. She had just six years of s ...

– environmental activist *

Brian Greig Brian Andrew Greig OAM (born 22 February 1966) is a former Australian politician. Grieg was an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate from 1999 to 2005, representing the state of Western Australia. Early life Greig was born in ...

– Australian politician, former Senator for Western Australia representing the Australian Democrats *

Kevin Hewison Kevin Hewison is an Australian social and political scientist, formerly the Weldon E. Thornton Distinguished Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and director of the Carolina Asia Center. He is now Weldon E. Thornton Di ...

– Asian Studies professor *

Frederic Jevons Frederic Raphael Jevons (born 19 September 1929 in Austria as Frederic Raphael Bettelheim, died 30 September 2012 in Melbourne) was a British Professor of biochemistry and later an Australian educator. He was informally known as Fred Jevons and ...

– biochemist and educator * Michael Keenan – Australian politician, member for Stirling, representing the Liberal Party *

Raeesah Khan Raeesah Begum bte Farid Khan (born 1993) is a Singaporean social activist and former politician. A former member of the opposition Workers' Party (WP), she was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Compassvale division of Sengkang GRC ...

– Singaporean activist and politician * Bill Loader – Emeritus Professor of New Testament *

Scott Ludlam Scott Ludlam (born 10 January 1970) is a New Zealand-born Australian former politician. A member of the Australian Greens, he was a senator in the Australian Senate from July 2008 to July 2017 and served as deputy leader of the Greens. Ludlam ...

– Former Senator for Western Australia and federal co-leader of the

* Toby Miller – cultural and media studies scholar * Hannah McGlade – academic, human rights advocate and lawyer * Jeremy K. Nicholson – academic specialising in metabonomics *

Melissa Parke Melissa Parke (born 11 August 1966) is a former Australian Labor Party politician and UN human rights lawyer, who served as Member for the federal electoral Division of Fremantle in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. In ...

– Australian politician, member for Fremantle, representing the Labor Party *

Brad Pettitt Bradley William Pettitt (born 14 July 1972) is an Australian politician, who was Mayor of Fremantle in Western Australia from 2009 until 2021. At the 2021 state election, Pettitt was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council as the ...

– Former Mayor of the City of Fremantle, member of the WA Legislative Council, representing the Greens (WA) *

Margaret Quirk Margaret Mary Quirk (born 26 June 1957) is an Australian politician who has been a Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch), Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia ...

– Australian politician in the WA Legislative Assembly, representing the Labor Party *

Chandrika Ravi Chandrika Ravi is an Australian actress, model and dancer of Indian origin. She was born and raised in Australia before moving to Los Angeles for her acting and modelling career. She became known for her role in the 2018 Indian film ''Iruttu A ...

– Indian-Australian model, dancer and actress * Kim Scott – author *

Sally Talbot Sally Elizabeth Talbot (born 22 March 1953) is an Australian politician. She has been a Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch), Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Council since 2005, representing the region of ...

- Australian politician, member of the WA Legislative Council, representing Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) *

Jan Thomas Jan Thomas (born September 18, 1958) is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. She lives in Socorro, New Mexico and has published three books with Harcourt Trade Publishers: '' What Will Fat Cat Sit On?'', ''A Birthday for Cow' ...

- Vice-chancellor of

Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...

, New Zealand * John Turner – Australian politician representing the Nationals * Kon Vatskalis – Australian politician representing the Labor Party, current Lord Mayor of Darwin * McKenzie Wark – writer and academic * Giz Watson – Australian politician, former leader of the

Greens WA Greens Western Australia, commonly known as the Greens WA, is a List of member parties of the Australian Greens, member party of the Australian Greens in Western Australia. The Greens (WA) was formed following the merger of the Western Australia ...

* Royston Wee – (Management and Marketing) professional Mixed Martial Artist in the UFC *

Barbara Wienecke Barbara Wienecke is a senior research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. She is a seabird ecologist who uses satellite tracking to investigate seabird population dynamics and ecology. Wienecke has played a key role in enhancing ...

– Antarctic researcher, seabird ecologist *

Grant Woodhams Grant Allen Woodhams (born 7 August 1952 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former politician. He was The Nationals member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from February 2005 to March 2013. Arriving in Western Austra ...

– Australian politician representing the Nationals *

Alison Xamon Alison Marie Xamon (born 8 June 1969) is an Australian Greens politician who served two separate terms in the Western Australian Legislative Council. Early life Xamon was born in Mundaring, Western Australia Xamon studied law and arts at Murd ...

– Australian politician in the Legislative Council, Parliamentary leader of the

Edmund Yeo Edmund Yeo (born 6 March 1984, in Singapore) is a Malaysian film director, screenwriter and film producer. He first received international acclaim in 2009 when his Japanese-language short film, Kingyo, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Sinc ...

– Malaysian filmmaker *

Basil Zempilas Basil Anthony Zempilas (born 30 July 1971) is an Australian television and radio presenter, sports commentator and politician based in Perth, Western Australia. Zempilas presented sport until 2022 on '' Seven News Perth'', Monday to Thursday and ...

– Broadcaster and

Lord Mayor of Perth __TOC__ The history of the City of Perth, a local government area of Western Australia is defined over three distinct periods: *From 1829 to 1838 — controlled by the Governor of Western Australia *From 1838 to 1858 — controlled by the ''Pe ...

References

External links

Murdoch University

Murdoch University Dubai
{{authority control Universities in Western Australia Education in Perth, Western Australia Educational institutions established in 1973 1973 establishments in Australia Chiropractic schools in Australia Seminaries and theological colleges in Australia