Monash University is one of Australia's largest universities. It has a total of eight campuses: six campuses in Australia, one in Malaysia and one in Johannesburg, South Africa. The university also has two centres in London and one in Prato, Italy.

It is one of Australia's "Group of Eight" leading universities, and was recently ranked by The Times Higher Education Supplement at number 33 in its annual ranking of the world's top 200 universities.

The university was established by an Act of the State Parliament of Victoria in 1958 and was the second university to be established in the state of Victoria. The original campus was in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Clayton (falling in what is now the City of Monash). In 1992, a series of mergers were made between Monash University, the Caulfield Institute of Technology and the Victorian College of Pharmacy, making Monash the largest and the most diverse university in Australia. Courses are offered from diploma to doctoral level in the faculties of art and design, arts, business and economics, education, engineering, information technology, law, medicine, pharmacy and science. The university has a particularly notable law school which is based in Clayton. It is also home to a number of specialist research centres.

The university is named after the prominent Australian general Sir John Monash and took its first students in 1961.

The Monash Clayton campus covers an area over 1 km², making it the largest university campus on the continent. In 2001, the State Government of Victoria decided to build the first Australian synchrotron adjoining Monash's Clayton Campus. The Australian Synchrotron, when built, is expected to be one of the most powerful electron microscopes in the world, capable of viewing matter at the molecular level using synchrotron light. The project is expected to cost up to 206 million dollars. The campus has its own suburb and postcode (3800).

The university motto is Ancora imparo, meaning 'I am still learning', a saying attributed to Michelangelo.

There are approximately 48,000 students at the university.

The current Vice-Chancellor of Monash University is Prof Richard Larkins.

See also

• List of universities in Australia

External links

• Official Monash University website (http://www.monash.edu.au)
• Official Australian Synchrotron website (http://www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au)
• Times Higher Education Supplement Rankings (http://www.idp.com/uk/newsevents/article924.asp)