Named after engineer, military leader and public administrator Sir John Monash, Monash University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1958. When our first students began their studies at our foundation campus in Clayton in 1961, we became the first university established in the state of Victoria in over 100 years.

The early vision was to create a research-focused tertiary institution with an emphasis on science and technology. As Monash has always done, though, we quickly moved beyond the bounds of expectation.

The growth from technology and science specialists to general university was rapid. It was accelerated by a merger with Chisholm Institute in 1990, which saw the Caulfield and Peninsula campuses become a part of the University. A year later the Victorian College of Pharmacy entered into a partnership with Monash that allowed us to bring Parkville into our portfolio of campuses.

From a single campus at Clayton with fewer than 400 students, Monash has grown into a network of campuses, education centres and partnerships spanning the globe. With approximately 60,000 students (and 350,000 alumni) from over 170 countries, we are today Australia's largest university.

The University now offers a broad selection of courses within 10 faculties: Art, Design and Architecture; Arts; Business and Economic; Education; Engineering; Information Technology; Law; Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences; Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and Science.

Our motto Ancora Imparo ("I am still learning") reminds us that the search for knowledge never ends. We are fired with a restless ambition that pushes us to do things better, to set new benchmarks and to break new ground.