The concept of public value reflects the University’s public-spirited ethos. Our activities in this area span our active institutional citizenship, cultural enterprise, outreach to communities of place and interest, and contribution to public policy and debate. United by a shared purpose of creating public value these activities are firmly based upon our academic mission.
Some of our recent activity includes:
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2018 Dungala Kaiela Oration
The Dungala Kaiela Oration is an annual event on Yorta Yorta country co-hosted by the Kaiela Institute and the University of Melbourne. The oration gives prominent leaders and thinkers a platform to discuss contemporary issues relevant to the Goulburn Murray region.
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2017 Narrm Oration
The Narrm Oration, delivered annually since 2009, is the University’s key address that profiles leading Indigenous peoples from across the world in order to enrich our ideas about possible futures for Indigenous Australia.
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The Policy Shop Podcast
The Policy Shop podcast examines Australian and global public policy challenges, digging deep to find the complexities and details in policy issues that may be missing from public debate.
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Cultural Collisions
The University of Melbourne became a Melbourne Festival precinct for the first time this year for the launch of its biennial event Cultural Collisions.
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Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity
The Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity is a new Indigenous-led program committed to driving positive social change in communities across Australia and New Zealand.
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Carlton Community Crops
More than 70 Carlton residents from 14 countries embarked on a series of horticultural training days to develop their food planting skills at the Burnley campus of the University of Melbourne.
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Pathways to Politics
Pathways to Politics Program for Women: addressing the chronic under-representation of women in parliament.
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Raise the Bar
Raise the Bar Academy is a joint initiative between Athletics Australia and Melbourne University Sport to provide Indigenous school students from around Australia a chance to discover the pathways to studying and participation through high performance sport.
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Neighbourhood Night at the Museum
Neighbourhood Night at the Museum is an annual arts and music event held by the Ian Potter Museum of Art to encourage interactions with the local community.
Excellence in Engagement – Public Value award recipients:
This award recognises initiatives and staff members that demonstrably enrich the intellectual, cultural, social and economic life of wider society through the academic enterprise. This award particularly recognises exemplary engagement through response to, or influence of, communities of interest beyond the academy, and creatively applying academic resources to create public value.
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Dr David McInnes
The University’s recent celebration, Shakespeare 400 Melbourne, led by Dr David McInnes reignited community interest in the storyteller’s works. From the Australian launch of the new Oxford Complete Shakespeare to the Shakespeare On Film festival in conjunction with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the British Film Institute, Dr McInnes curated a program with something for everybody.
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Associate Professor Jennifer Hayes
The University of Melbourne has the largest and oldest body donor program in Australia, with over 1000 students participating in cadaveric dissection annually. Associate Professor Jennifer Hayes is leading the University’s public acknowledgement of the body donor program through the annual Commemorative Thanksgiving Service.
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Katherine Mack
When she’s not working as a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Melbourne, Dr Katherine Mack writes articles for media publications, gives public lectures and interacts with the general public through her social media accounts especially via Twitter, where she has over 80,000 followers at the time of writing and is the most followed astronomer in Australia.
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Joseph Lo Bianco
Joseph Lo Bianco wrote Australia’s National Policy on Languages in 1987, the first in an English speaking country. He became the first educator to be elected President of the Australian Academy of Humanities. But it is his pioneering work in finding solutions to conflicts in Southeast Asia through the use of linguistic exchanges that has earned him the Excellence in Engagement – Public Value Award.
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Andrew Robinson
Biosecurity is more than just pursuing Hollywood celebrities for bringing in undeclared animals. It involves a wide range of stakeholders including governments, businesses and researchers to protect our unique ecosystem from external threats. Associate Professor Andrew Robinson from the School of BioSciences is playing a vital role in protecting our agricultural and environmental heritage.