Melbourne Model

The Melbourne Model was introduced at the University of Melbourne in 2008 by Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis. The Melbourne Model is designed to align itself "with the best of European and Asian practice and North American traditions" specifically for "[i]nternationalising academic programs and aligning degree structures with the 'Bologna model'". As a result of its implementation the university's 96 undergraduate courses were replaced with six undergraduate degrees and professional programs.

The Melbourne Model has been met with a wave of criticism from students, academics and unions as well as coming under much scrutiny in the Australian press, often described as "controversial" and following a "US-style". Most of the criticism is focused on the loss of jobs (and the consequent negative impact on staff:student ratios) rather than the Model itself. Job losses were initially concentrated in the Arts Faculty but later spread to other faculties, including the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA or VCAM). Although the program is often compared to the American tertiary education system, it uses only three-year undergraduate degrees whereas in the United States bachelor's degrees are almost universally designed as four-year programs.

Since the consolidation of the Melbourne Model, the University was placed 28th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2012–2013 and 36th in the world in the QS World University Rankings for 2012–2013.

In their Growing Esteem whitepaper the University of Melbourne put their rationale for the move in this manner:

There are international moves to standardise degree structures. The familiar American pattern of four-year arts or science degrees followed by graduate school is being echoed by the Bologna Declaration among European nations. The Bologna model, set to become the European standard from 2010, advocates a three-year undergraduate program with advanced courses taught in a two-year masters degree or a three-year doctoral program. Historically, this move updates an ancient structure, that of the University of Paris in the 13th century. If this becomes a global norm but Australia continues to prepare its professionals through undergraduate programs, in the longer term our graduates may no longer be seen as globally competitive.

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