Parliamentary lessons

The question came from the far reaches of the lecture theatre and from the depths of the heart of the student who posed it.

“As university students and future professionals, and as young people passionate about social issues – we often face a dilemma. Should we spend our time engaging with these issues – campaigning, fundraising, working on committees, organising events, in the hope of making a difference now, or would our time be better invested in studying and improving knowledge and skills in our field, so that we may make a greater contribution in the future as professionals? How can we get the balance right?”

Third year Medicine student, Michelle Li, who is passionate about global health, was one of the more than 100 delegates from 17 countries who had assembled for the University’s inaugural three-day Global Perspectives Summit, “Youth + Vision = Future,” convened as part of the Melbourne Model.

Delegates had just heard Dan Adams, 2008 Young Victorian of the Year, recount his life-changing experience in 2006 when his privileged western status gave him access to drugs that saved his life after a surfing accident in Samoa. These same drugs were unavailable to local people and Mr Adams decided to, as he put it, “stop being a spectator” to injustice, deferring his studies at Monash and throwing himself into the “Make Poverty History” campaign that culminated in a benefit concert headlined by U2 and Pearl Jam, urging delegates too to take the plunge and become active themselves and recruit others to their causes alongside their formal education.

It was 2010 Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry, who gave the initial response. He spoke of his journey as a teenaged migrant to Australia through clinical practice and research before specialising in psychiatry when in his late 30s he began to make an impact in his quest to get just recognition and funding for mental health, particularly for young people,

“You have to stay with your special cause, you have to be willing to take risks along the way, have perseverance and probably some luck,” Professor McGorry urges the delegates.

Welcoming delegates on the United Nations International Day of Peace, Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis drew on his own undergraduate experience to illustrate how participation in events like the summit was integral to the Melbourne Model.

“University is a great time for exploring the things you are interested in but also working out who you are and what your passion is,” Professor Davis says.

“We always talk like everybody already knew that but actually most of us take quite a while to work out what we care about and you don’t actually know what your life is going to be focused on.

“Most of us went to university and it meant that we ended up doing something completely different. I remember having to come home and explain to my parents that ‘Yes I know I was doing Medicine but I’m now doing Arts’ and yes, that’s a big moment.

“That’s actually working out who you are and what you care about. And there’s no particularly compelling reason why you should know that up front.

“One of the reasons we introduced the Melbourne Model is to try to give people a chance, particularly in the first two years, to try a number of things and see what they get enough out of.

“Under this system if a student identifies renewable energy for example as their issue, they can pursue it through a range of disciplines.

“In other words there are different ways into problems and I have to work out which is my best spot, where I can best use my talents to address the problem.”

Professor Davis stresses that study at university is one part of life’s long and great journey with many directions and choices and should not be seen as the only choice or a destination in its own right.

 “The whole point about life is that it is unpredictable, and it’s interesting for being unpredictable, it takes you to places you didn’t anticipate going – whether you want to or not.

“And it’s most exciting when you work out the things you care about and you work out how you find the pathway there and people discover things along the way about themselves and about the world.”

Professor Davis is adamant that a career must include a strong element of satisfaction and a narrower focus simply does not work.

”What doesn’t work for most people is a narrow preoccupation with passing exams and getting through and my life will start somehow miraculously when I graduate.”

Melbourne Arts graduate, Zoe Dauth, Student Leadership Programs Officer, Leadership, Involvement & Volunteer Experience Unit (LIVE) and a member of the summit organising team, explains how the Summit flows from the Melbourne Model.

“The University of Melbourne has created a new model of undergraduate education, encouraging students to develop the skills to think on an inter-disciplinary basis, be community leaders attuned to cultural diversity and aspire to become active global citizens,” says Ms Dauth who is also resident tutor in Spanish at Janet Clarke Hall.

“The Summit team is made up of students and staff and aims at equipping students, from all the various academic disciplines, with the knowledge and skills to shape the future we envisage.”

The Summit opened with an evening of social networking for the delegates followed the next day by an all-day round table discussion which settled on proposals and motions which debated and voted on the following day in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Victoria. Students then presented the recommendations at a closing reception at Government House hosted by the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser AC and his wife, Jan de Kretser. The potential of the Summit was recognised by the award of a Dream Large Knowledge Transfer Grant, University-wide support and tremendous interest from the students.

“We envisage and aspire for the Global Perspectives Summit to grow into a major, annual, international and global event for the University and the world,” says organising committee member, Arts student, Brigitte Wise, an aspiration shared by fellow committee members David Toovey, also studying Arts, and Architecture, Building and Planning student Luke Wilson.

“And they do tell us to ‘Dream Large’ after all,” says Ms Wise who became involved in the Summit because she believes it brings together young people who have intelligent ideas, opinions and visions for the future which are often ignored or go unheard.

Each sees the Summit as flowing in one way or another from the environment produced by the Melbourne Model.

For former Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholar, David Toovey, his experiences as 13-year-old in Papua New Guinea fired his passion for community service which has seen him already serve as the CEO of the Oaktree Foundation and train under Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Al Gore, as a Climate Ambassador.

“Working out what you love doing and taking the time as an undergraduate to take as many opportunities as you can, it’s the time to challenge yourself and explore who you are and what you care about and the types of things you are interested in,” he says.

“Find out what you love doing and go and do it.”

Architecture, Building and Planning student Luke Wilson who is from Yorkshire in the UK juggles interests in politics, languages and sport with his studies, which he hopes will lead to residency in Australia and work that could include garden and golf course design.

“My life has been full of opportunities and I want to take advantage of as many of those opportunities as I can,” he says.

“I don’t want to look back and think ‘Why didn’t I do this or that?’ and so it’s really important that I make the best fist of it and share my ideas and knowledge from my background,” says Luke.

“You get the freedom and time to figure out what you do enjoy,” Ms Wise adds.

“When I came from school I had no idea what I wanted to do and it’s taken me two-and-a-half years to figure out what I want to do. If I’d known that at school I could have saved myself two-and-a-half years, but at the same time it’s been very positive because I’ve grown and learned about the things I do like and don’t like and had wonderful opportunities along the way.”

Arts student Richard Lyons, who proposed the motion in Parliament for a new breadth subject called “Wicked Problems” as befitting the Melbourne Model, says it was the introduction of the model itself that drew him to the University.

“One of the reasons I specifically chose the Melbourne Model for my university education was because it accepted the fact that many people leave school uncertain of their future direction and career choice. The Melbourne Model gives students time to reflect on what career and educational path they may be passionate about, rather than an outcomes-based model that lacks the promotion of ideas and thought in students.”

Mentors to the Summit are Professor Roger Short from Zoology and former Secretary-General of the World Federation of United Nations, Pera Wells, a College Fellow at Ormond College.

“I have been teaching in universities around the world since 1956, and have never experienced anything quite like it before; I found it a most rewarding experience,” Professor Short says.

“The round-table discussions after each talk were a great way to highlight the diversity of opinions in the student body, and particularly to bring out the views of students from different nationalities. The role of the student chair to summarise the debate in a form suitable for bringing to Parliament House the following day was an excellent way of bringing focus to a wide-ranging discussion.”

Ms Wells says the feature of the new curriculum design of the Melbourne Model that the students at the Summit most valued is its interdisciplinary nature.

“Coming from 17 different countries, the students were genuinely excited to be in dialogue with one another about global issues and then to be given the opportunity to debate their ideas and take votes in Parliament House.”

For Provost, Professor John Dewar, the events like the Summit explain national and international interest in the Melbourne Model.

“Universities are starting to emulate us in whole or in part,” he says.

“In Australia, UWA is introducing their version of the model, as is Aberdeen in Scotland. Many UK universities are seeking significantly to increase their graduate cohorts; and there is a national conversation under way about the objectives of undergraduate curricula. We can claim credit for galvanising many of these developments.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Participation and Engagement) Professor Richard James says the University has been responding to pressures to develop a curriculum inside and outside the formal classroom that meets contemporary pressures and needs.

“The Global Perspectives Summit is a very concrete example of what we aspire to at the University of Melbourne. In a very real sense it ticks all of the boxes that we are trying to tick.”

Education along with the Melbourne Law School was the first to transfer professional qualifications to graduate entry.

 “The Melbourne Model offered an opportunity to design a world-class teacher education program from scratch,” says Professor Field Rickards, Dean, Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

“The Melbourne Model offered a rare chance to completely rethink how we do things and, as a result we are now heading in a really exciting direction.  As well as producing outstanding teachers, the Masters of Teaching also aims to be a catalyst that enhances the capabilities of the next generation of teachers.

“The resulting Masters of Teaching is a genuine clinical masters; the only teacher education program of its type in Australia.”

http://www.gpsmelbourne.org
http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/live/
http://www.live.unimelb.edu.au/episode/global-perspectives-summit-demons...
http://www.education.unimelb.edu.au/mteach/
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org