Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 08:02, 3 August 2005

Murdoch University is a university with its main campus at Murdoch, 14km south of Perth, Western Australia, along the Kwinana Freeway. It commenced operations as WA's second university in 1973, and opened its doors to 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 13,000 students, 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 and chiropractic 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", on an elevated site in the northern part of the 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).

Murdoch 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 as well as 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, psychology, engineering, veterinary studies, chiropractic, postgraduate pharmacy, education, mass communications and commerce.

Murdoch University particularly prides itself on its high standard of teaching and focus on students' needs. It is widely seen as one of Australia's most liberal campuses and has strong representation for gay and lesbian people.

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

Merger plans

Murdoch University and Curtin University of Technology have recently agreed (June 2005) to undertake a feasibility study on merging. If successful, the merger would take place in late 2006 or 2007, and would result in a combined student body of 50,000 as well as making it one of Australia's top-tier research universities. No decision has been made on a name. Rumours in the news that Edith Cowan University would also be part of the merger plans have been flatly rejected by both Curtin and Murdoch. For more information, Murdoch's merger site has a collection of press releases and other information.

Murdoch College

On the north east corner of the South Street campus, Murdoch College was established by the university to cater for secondary students in a university environment and to enrich their academic, social and personal potential. Many students from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea enrol in Murdoch College because it provides a guaranteed place in Murdoch University for tertiary education.

Interesting points on campus

Interesting places on campus recommended to students studying at Curtin include:

Food

The Ref (Food Court);

Located on the western side of Bush Court, the Food Court contains several cafes, a kebab shop and Asian food.

Sir Walter's Cafe;

Located on the 2nd floor of the Library, it's a popular spot for coffee or even just relaxing in the outdoor seated area.

The Tavern;

Located past the ECL buildings at the lower end of campus, and with an attached cafe, The Tavern is always popular with students and has a range of entertainment at different times during the year.

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

Library

Murdoch Campus Library

• The only library on campus, located in the south end of Bush Court. For more info, see the Library web site.

Computer Labs

GCL1

• General access labs located just off Bush Court near the Kim E Beazley Lecture Theatre.
• Provides PCs running Windows XP and printing stations.
• See CNS website for more info.

Various faculty and department-specific computing labs also exist.

Student Guild

The Murdoch University Guild of Students is the student representative association at Murdoch University. All students automatically become members of the guild under current universal student membership legislation. As well as handling student representation, the Guild manages most of the food outlets on campus, runs the tavern 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.

For more information, see the Guild website.

Transportation

Murdoch campus

Car

There are several car parks around the campus, for staff and student use. For more info, see the Parking and Traffic web site.

Public transport

Transperth provides several bus services to and from Murdoch and Rockingham. The 98/99 Circleroute service has two stops outside the Murdoch campus on South Street, which also runs to the nearby Murdoch Park 'n' Ride station on Kwinana Freeway with regular services to Perth. A bus stop on Campus Drive near the gymnasium accommodates buses to Perth, Bibra Lake and Booragoon.

External links

• Murdoch University Home Page
• Murdoch College Home Page

• Universities in Western Australia
• Perth