The Melbourne Curriculum
The Melbourne curriculum was introduced in 2008 and offers degrees in three broad cycles. At Bachelor degree level, students select from one of six degrees offering a total of 87 major fields of study. These programs lay the intellectual foundations for employment or further study.
Under the Melbourne curriculum, most professional qualifications are offered at Master’s level, where students can choose from a variety of professional or specialist graduate programs offering intensive, focused graduate-level experiences that promote deep professional learning. At Doctoral level, students develop research skills working alongside international leaders in a broad range of fields.
Key features
The key features of the Melbourne curriculum are choice and flexibility at undergraduate level, together with diversity and applicability at graduate level. The curriculum caters for students who enter University at undergraduate or graduate level with a variety of goals: those sure of their chosen path; those who have not yet determined their future vocation; and those who begin on one path then discover another.
A vital feature of the Melbourne curriculum is the diversity of flexible educational pathways that it offers to students. The curriculum encompasses a wide range of study options and pathways, and allows students to make more timely and informed decisions about career directions. Each individual student is assisted to choose a pathway through the Melbourne curriculum that is tailored to their developing interests and goals.
Why the Melbourne curriculum?
Building on our long-standing traditions of leadership and innovation, and embracing international developments in curriculum design, the Melbourne curriculum ensures that our students continue to be given the best opportunities to position themselves personally, professionally and globally. In developing the new curriculum, the University recognises that the world our students will enter is marked by rapid change: challenging us to produce graduates who will need to have increasingly applicable knowledge, and flexible and adaptable skills.
The Melbourne curriculum was introduced to:
- Provide flexibility at undergraduate level in order to allow for developing interests and enable more considered choices by students about further study or career options
- Improve intellectual coherence, research relevance and peer interaction at undergraduate level
- Provide intensive training at graduate level to students with greater maturity and breadth of perspective in order to deliver better personal and professional outcomes
- Strengthen preparation for doctoral research and academic mobility
- Develop graduates with defined educational, aspirational and personal attributes