Monash Progress Report 2022 – Goal 4
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Monash Research Outputs: 3152
Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI): 2.24
3 Year Rolling Mean FWCI: 2.43
Monash University’s Faculty of Education is ranked first in Australia and has a reputation for academic excellence, expertise in areas of education including arts and creativity, early childhood play, environment and sustainability, health and physical education, and digital education. The Faculty's research agenda is focussed on working towards a society in which education enables full and equitable participation, with pillars on reimagining educational leadership, transforming teaching and learning, shaping digital futures, enhancing health and wellbeing, and educating for diversity and inclusion.
Unprecedented amounts of data are collected by technology in education. Learning analytics reveals hidden insights from this information to optimise learning and its environments.
The cross-faculty Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash (CoLAM) is a world-leader in learning analytics – and a globally-renowned hub for educating students and professionals in this area. Gathering top expertise in education and technology from around the world, the Centre undertakes applied research to directly inform public policy and its implications for education practice.
The Hub for Educational Design and Innovation (HEDI) in the Faculty of Education is the home of passionate researchers and educators who are reimagining higher education and professional learning. The Hub’s mission is to improve the access, opportunities, experience and success of all learners. Scholars in the Hub achieve this by driving the innovative transformation of learning designs, technologies, environments and communities.
Conceptual PlayLab tests ground-breaking play-based models for teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics to young children. Funded by a $3.2 million ARC Laureate Fellowship, the project aims to create significant shifts in the ways STEM concepts are taught in early childhood in Australia, and around the world.
Other SDGs:
Funded by the Academy of Finland and co-led with researchers from the University of the Arts Helsinki, Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics in the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance investigates music education and teacher training in Finland, Australia and South Africa in order to identify new ways of implementing music education and arts education that are environmentally responsible, socially engaged and forward-looking.
The project aims to build educators’ professional self-awareness in music education and their civic responsibilities as professionals in an age of uncertainty, eco-crises, and systemic ‘wicked problems’.

In 2022, Monash offered 311 units directly related to SDG4 with 9,789 total enrolments.
The units highlighted below are a small sample of the units at Monash relating to quality education:
The Master of Environment and Sustainability was the first postgraduate program in Australia to be comprehensively mapped to cover the 17 SDGs. The program, incorporating interdisciplinary collaboration models, was co-developed with 12 faculties, institutes, and centres as well as dozens of industry partners and has since been copied by other universities around the world.
The Master of Environmental Sustainability won the 2019 National Banksia Foundation Award, the highest award in the field in Australia.
The Master of Inclusive Education is designed for teachers who wish to develop specialist knowledge and skills in inclusive practices in classrooms. It enables students to explore theory, current research, practical methods and regulatory contexts that inform effective strategies to support children, adolescents and adults with learning, social and behavioural challenges. The program helps students develop an understanding of contemporary educational issues around social justice and equity.
The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance has developed a range of teaching and learning materials and opportunities that highlight a First Nations lens, truth-telling, historical acceptance and an understanding of reconciliation.
In 2022 this included the development and first iteration of an On Country unit, redesigned coursework and assessment to incorporate the concepts of reconciliation and the development of personal reconciliation plans as part of assessment, and a suite of new learning materials designed for use in multiple units.
The Monash Virtual School provides free online opportunities for disadvantaged young people. A partnership between the Faculty of Education, philanthropic donors and non-government organisations, the Monash Virtual School works to enhance STEM educational opportunities for girls and young women.
In 2022, more than 25,000 places were booked in our online revision classes. Internationally, the program works to enhance geopolitical security through educational opportunities for young people impacted by conflict. In 2022 over 70,000 places were booked in the Monash Virtual School’s online classes by students from Ukraine and Myanmar.
Other SDGs:
Monash Business School is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative to raise the profile of sustainability in schools, equip business students to deliver change and progress the Sustainable Development Goals.
With the Dean’s Awards for PRME Education Excellence firmly established as part of the annual recognition of excellence, in 2022 the Monash Business School continued to develop and embed ethical and responsible perspectives into its programs, addressing environmental outlooks, development, and ecological sustainability as key topics for teaching across undergraduate and graduate degree offerings.
MSDI hosts the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Regional Network for Australia, NZ & Pacific (SDSN AusNZPac). In 2022, SDSN AusNZPac co-organised nine virtual sessions with Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) and Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Australia and New Zealand to discuss good practices, challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming education for the SDGs to all higher education students. The sessions involved speakers from 28 universities and networks in the region, and registrants from nearly 40 countries. SDSN AusNZPac Youth focussed on climate action, including developing a position statement with 60 youth leaders from around Asia/Pacific that identified priorities for COP27. It also supported students to establish SDSN Youth SDG Hubs at four universities in the region.
Monash Global Campus Intensives (MGCIs) are intensive interdisciplinary units offered across the Monash campus network. Open to students from Australia and Malaysia in their second year or later, students can take from a single three-week module up to a full semester’s study load. Students select from program themes that address the world's most pressing challenges, examining them in a local geopolitical and cultural context.
Themes hosted at Monash University’s Prato Centre in 2022 included sustainability in industries, human rights, climate change law, and migration. Students enrolled in ‘Sustainable Tuscany’, for example, engaged with industries through guest lectures and site visits, learning about impactful sustainable projects that highlight the tradition of creativity and innovation that makes Italy a global leader in these fields.
The Global Immersion Guarantee’s Malaysia program and Special Topic in Social Science are field-based units enabling students to visit communities to work on sustainability issues around human impact on the Malaysian environment. Students work closely with community representatives and stakeholders to identify complications arising from the implementation of SDG-related initiatives on the ground, and work with these groups to help address the effects, in the process, exploring how their position as global citizens can contribute to these initiatives and issues.

The Monash Centre for Professional Development and Monash Online Education supports the faculties and other areas in the University in the development and execution of formal life-long learning opportunities, including professional development, short courses, executive education and micro-credential courses.
Monash Business School’s Executive Education team delivered a customised year-long program, the Epworth Senior Medical Leadership Program, to a select cohort of doctors at Epworth, a large not-for-profit healthcare provider. The program focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, culture, change management, and leadership in the healthcare sector.
The Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership is dedicated to building better leaders. It offers a variety of leadership programs, covering different topics, sectors and levels of immersion. By sharpening critical reasoning and ethical thinking, it has been helping high-level decision-makers since 1993 to better see the bigger picture on any issue they face. The Centre is Monash University, The Myer Foundation and Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Foundation working in partnership. Programs offered by Cranlana include The Colloquium, Vincent Fairfax Fellowship, Executive Ethics, and the Customised Ethics Programs.
Created by the Faculty of Education, TeachSpace is a place for teachers to continue to learn. It provides resources, case studies and handy tips for the classroom. From easily accessible articles and videos to deeper dives for educational leaders, all the materials are based on the latest research from specialist educators from Monash. In 2022, this included 21 new articles covering topics such as Teaching and learning, STEM, Health and Physical Education, Early childhood, Inclusive education, Development and behaviour, Wellbeing, and Educational leadership.
The Monash Assistive Technology and Society Centre supports people with disabilities by exploring the role of technology in social and economic participation and driving technological innovation that meets the needs of people with disabilities, their families, educators and employers.
The Centre brings together more than 100 researchers across Monash disciplines in Australia and Malaysia. Activities in 2022 focused on three interlinked pillars of Community Impact, Excellent Research and Rich, Inclusive Education.
Green Steps, a transformational leadership program offered by Monash Sustainable Development Institute, brings Monash students together in innovative and practical sustainability training and consultancy projects. The program is designed to change perspectives and build practical skills such as problem mapping, strategic planning and communicating for change.
In 2022, 28 students participated in the Green Steps program, with 18 students then undertaking consultancy projects. The consultancy projects covered themes including pollution, waste and circular economy, shared value and net zero transitions, and improving public and community engagement. This is the second year Enel, an international renewable energy organisation, has sponsored the program.

Monash University Malaysia’s School of Business partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as well as private institutions to help deliver the Connecting and Equipping Refugees for Tertiary Education (CERTE) bridge course. The CERTE course was developed to help prepare promising refugee students to take advantage of higher education opportunities in Malaysia.
A total of 81 per cent of graduating domestic undergraduates at Monash found full-time work within six months of course completion in 2022. This was the highest level observed since the inception of the Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) in 2016, demonstrating Monash remains highly regarded for graduate employability.
Employers have also expressed high satisfaction with Monash education. Around 86 per cent of employers indicated a strong likelihood of hiring another Monash graduate with the same qualification if given the opportunity.
Indigenous student enrolments have increased steadily across Monash, with 327 students enrolled across undergraduate, postgraduate and higher degree by research levels in 2022 (up from 241 in 2018).
The William Cooper Institute provides support for Indigenous students through various initiatives, and works with faculties to provide non-Indigenous students with content that incorporates historical, contemporary issues drawing on Indigenous perspectives in curriculum and learning environments, including on-country experiences. A suite of compulsory Indigenous cultural modules for students were also developed, with more than 53,000 completions.