Murdoch University

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Murdoch University


Motto	Seek Wisdom^[1]
Established	1975
Type	Public
Chancellor	Terry Budge
Vice-Chancellor	Professor John Yovich AM
Faculty	1,300
Undergraduates	10,200
Postgraduates	2,200
Location	Perth, WA, Australia
Campus	Urban
Organisations	Member of Innovative Research Universities Australia
Website	www.murdoch.edu.au

Murdoch University is a university with its main campus at Murdoch, 14km south of Perth, Western Australia, along South Street near the Kwinana Freeway (32°4′3″S, 115°50′10″E). It commenced operations as WA's second university in 1973, and accepted its first students in 1975. Its name is taken from Sir Walter Murdoch (1874-1970), a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence, wit and humanity.

Murdoch University is home to 14,271 students (as of August 31, 2006),^[2] of which over 2,000 are international students. There are three main divisions at Murdoch: Arts (which includes Humanities, Social Sciences, IT, Law and Business); Health Sciences and Science and Engineering.

Murdoch has Australia's geographically largest campus at 2.27 square kilometres, necessary in order to accommodate Western Australia's only veterinary school. Most of the southern part of the university consists of paddocks of livestock, farm and renewable energy facilities.

The original group of University buildings surround an open court, known as "Bush Court", in the northern part of the campus. Bush Court contains the highest point on campus. The buildings are linked on the court's sides by broad colonnaded verandahs in a compact design which aims at encouraging a sense of community. Features around campus include the Chinese garden and the Joglo Rahayu (Peace Pavilion).

The University has three major campuses. Aside from Murdoch, there is the Rockingham Regional Campus, opened in 1996 alongside Rockingham's TAFE campus, which features dedicated facilities for Engineering, an Arts and Commerce building and a community library; and the Peel Campus in Mandurah, which opened in 2004 for nursing and life science students.

Murdoch University was initially intended to cater predominantly to mature-aged students. As a result, many courses are available externally and an increasing number are available online. It is home to several disciplinary schools: law, arts, information technology, science, biotechnology, psychology, engineering, veterinary studies, chiropractic, postgraduate pharmacy,^[3] counter-terrorism,^[4] education, mass communications and commerce. According to The Australian newspaper, the Graduate Careers Council of Australia found its Journalism School is one of Australia's top five.

Chancellery Building

Murdoch University is also very research intensive.

Murdoch University is a member of Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia).

[edit] Merger plans

Curtin University of Technology and Murdoch University agreed in June 2005 to undertake a feasibility study on merging. On November 7, 2005, both institutions issued a press release stating that such a merger will not be undertaken.

[edit] Murdoch College

On the north east corner of the South Street campus, Murdoch College was established by the university and the Alexander Education Group in 2000 to cater for secondary students in a university environment and to enrich their academic, social and personal potential. It is one of few secondary schools on a university campus in Australia and students have the opportunity to experience university facilities often. It offers a full complement of Year 7-12 subjects across the 8 learning areas. Many students from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea enrol at Murdoch College and enhance its strong multicultural ethos.

[edit] Murdoch Institute of Technology

The Murdoch Institute of Technology (MIT) was established by the university and the Alexander Education Group. It is a feeder college catering for students wishing to complete diploma level courses. Future plans involve building dedicated facilities on the tennis courts north of the SSHE building, which currently houses the School of Education's teaching caravans and some satellite dishes.

[edit] Student Village

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Murdoch University Student Village is an on-campus residential community with over 530 resident students from many different backgrounds and cultures. Student Village offers a large social environment involving many student organisations and runs many events with free attendance for residents.

Student Village at night

[edit] Places of Interest on Campus

Interesting places on the South Street campus include:

[edit] Food

Food Court and Club Murdoch

Located on the western side of Bush Court, the Food Court (also known as the Refectory) contains several cafés, a kebab shop and Asian food. It is also near the Murdoch Bookshop, which has an entrance from within the Refectory. There are also an outdoor seating area on the southern side and Club Murdoch on the northern side.

Footpath to Club Murdoch

Sir Walter's Cafe and Little Walter's

Sir Walter's Cafe is located on level 2 of the library and is a popular spot for coffee or relaxing in the courtyard. Little Walter's is off the eastern side of Bush Court, selling hot and cold beverages. It also sells some hot food such as muffins and cakes.

The Tavern

Located past the ECL buildings at the southern end of campus, the Tavern is always popular with students and has a range of entertainment at different times during the year. A new one is currently being built in the front of the university on Bush Court. Until semester 1 2006, the Tavern hosted Triple Crown, the university's end of semester party.

Others

Also, various cheap Asian food caravans exist around campus - well-established ones (since at least 1998) are The Lunchbox at ECL level 2, and "Campus Asian Food" near the Science & Computing building.

[edit] Library

[edit] Murdoch Campus Library

The main library on the Murdoch campus is located on the south end of Bush Court. It consists of a North Wing (levels 2-4), a Link (levels 2-3) and a South Wing (levels 1-4). The only entrance and exit are on North Wing Level 3, which is level with Bush Court.

Some of the time the library is open is known as "Study Hall". During this time, patrons may access the collections, computers, photocopiers and self-borrowing machines, but there is no desk, phone or e-mail service.

The Learning Common is in North Wing levels 2 and 3 and when complete in May 2007, will provide 24 hour computer access and security services.

North Wing

Level 2: Science journals
Level 3: Main entrance, foyer, Reserve section, eLibrary 1
Level 4: Teaching and Learning Centre, Art Gallery

Link Level

Level 2: Murdoch Print, Newspaper, Videos/DVD and Microfiche sections
Level 3: Reference and Magazine sections

South Wing

Level 1: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and eLibrary 4
Level 2: Education and Mass Communications
Level 3: Murdoch Law Library and eLibrary 3
Level 4: Economics and Business Library

Many items from the university's art collection are on show around the library, especially in the North Wing Level 4 Art Gallery. As well as Murdoch students and staff, students from other WA universities and members of the public may apply to borrow from the library.

In 2006 and 2007, the Library is undergoing major building works to remove asbestos from the roof (in an ongoing project involving other university buildings) and construct the new Learning Common. This has involved re-shelving many items to be in DDC sequence on the South Wing.

[edit] Vet Library

The veterinary and biomedical sciences library is a smaller facility located in the Veterinary Clinical Sciences building, southeast of the main library. There are 2 computers for student use, 3 catalogue computers and 1 printing station.

[edit] Computer Labs

See the Computing Facilities section.

[edit] Guild Shop and Service Station

The Guild Shop and Guild Service Station are located next to Little Walter's. The areas behind the counters are linked, although from the outside they appear separate. The Guild Shop sells SmartRiders and students who purchase them from the Guild Shop do not have to fill out any Transperth forms to obtain concession fares (although they still have to fill out the university's online form).

[edit] Student Demographics

Total population of Murdoch University as of 2005 is 13,492.^[5]

Murdoch University also partners with other educational institutions, such as KDU College in Malaysia, to provide university degrees to off-shore students.

Murdoch has many students from Singapore, Malaysia, China, United States, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Kenya and Taiwan.^[6]

Murdoch University also have foreign exchange students from Japan, Korea, United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Germany and United Kingdom.

[edit] Student Guild

The Murdoch University Guild of Students is the student representative association at Murdoch University. Under the previous universal student membership legislation, all students automatically became members of the guild, although they could subsequently opt-out or opt-in of membership. In 2005, voluntary student unionism legislation was introduced by the Federal government. Students can now choose not to be members of the guild, or choose to be basic or financial members (financial members pay fees and receive additional entitlements, including discounts).

As well as handling student representation and assistance with education and welfare issues, the Guild manages two food outlets on campus, runs the tavern, sports and recreation centre and the second hand bookshop. The guild partially finances many of the student associations on campus and run specific guild events of their own. Finally, the guild publishes Metior, the campus magazine.

The Guild is the recognised channel of communication between the Student body and the University Administration and has representatives on a vast array of the University's committess where the interests of students are involved.

The Guild is affiliated with the National Union of Students, and its postgraduate student assosciation (Murdoch University Postgraduate Student Association (MUPSA)) is a member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

In 2007, the Guild President is Reece Harley and the Education Vice President is Eden Ridgeway.

[edit] Student Clubs

A list of Guild Affiliated Clubs is available at the Guild website.

[edit] Murdoch Student Law Society

MSLS (Murdoch Student Law Society) is a student organisation that represents students studying law and legal studies at Murdoch University (though membership is open to all). MSLS organises some of the biggest social events at Murdoch. MSLS was one of the founding co-hosts the semester ending event, Triple Crown.

In addition to social events, MSLS also organises educational seminars and legal competitions such as Mooting, Negotiation, Trial Advocacy, Client Interview and Paper Presentation.

The Murdoch Student Law Society is affiliated with ALSA and sends competitors to the National Championships held at the Annual Conference each year.

[edit] MITS

MITS(Murdoch Information Technology Society) is a society that promotes education and socialising between IT students. They hold many events for students to network and gain essential job skills and knowledge.

[edit] MARS

MARS (Murdoch Alternative Reality Society) is a genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror etc) and gaming club that was founded in 1988. It has a large collection of role playing games. In the past it has received national press coverage, playtested supplements for Rolemaster and received funding from Cadbury chocolates on account of its name. MARS maintains close links with the University library which has an extensive genre fiction section.

[edit] MUEnSA

The Murdoch University Environmental Science Association (MUEnSA) is a social club for all students studying Environmental Science, Marine Science, Conservation Biology and related courses. They hold various social activities and activities focussing on the environment throughout the year.

MUEnSA has a work experience program, which runs seminars for students to get insiders' views of the work force.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Car

There are several car parks around each campus, for staff, student and visitor use. At certain times, some or all parking is free.

[edit] Public transport

Transperth provides several bus services to and from Murdoch and Rockingham. There are services connecting the Murdoch campus to the nearby Murdoch Park 'n' Ride, Perth, Bibra Lake and Booragoon. These include the CircleRoute service, which runs to Fremantle and the Park 'n' Ride, connecting to regular services to Perth.

Murdoch Train Station is currently under construction approximately 1000 metres from Murdoch campus, at the same location as the Park 'n' Ride. When complete in 2007, it will be the major public transport focus of the area. The campus will ultimately be linked to the station by the proposed Murdoch Transit Link, a busway running roughly parallel to South Street.

Rockingham Train Station is currently under construction, approximately 1500 metres from the Rockingham campus. When the station is complete in 2007, a shuttle bus will operate between the campus and station.

[edit] Other

The Murdoch and Rockingham campuses are linked by a shuttle bus operated by the university, which patrons must pay to use.

[edit] Computing Facilities

The South Street and Rockingham campuses provide the general computing labs GCL1 and GCL2, respectively. These labs, as well some of the labs in the South Street library, provide printing stations. Printing in other labs is managed using the PaperCut quota system. Each student is credited some print quota at the start of each semester, based upon their enrolment, and may purchase more.

There are also various faculty and department-specific computing labs. A recent policy change means that all students can now access all undergraduate computing labs (regardless of what units or courses they are enrolled in), although some labs are subject to bookings, some labs still have restricted access (based on time of day and/or student card) and students must still use the relevant faculty's labs to use faculty-specific software.

All PCs run Windows XP, except for those in the media labs, which run Mac OS X 10.4.

The wireless LAN can be accessed from many places on campus, including the Ref and the vet library, although no support is provided.

Access to a few Internet sites (including all WA university sites and all WAIX) is available for free from anywhere on campus. More sites have free access from the Learning Common (an area in the South Street library). Each week, each student's account is credited with some Internet quota, which may be used to access any Internet site, and may purchase more. There are some restrictions on which sites can be accessed from which computers, even when using this quota.

Unused print and Internet quota is cleared at the end of each year.