Melbourne University Private

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Melbourne University Private (MUP) was created by the University of Melbourne and operated as a private, profit-focused offshoot from July 1998 to June 2005. It was meant to have less government control and act more like private market-driven universities in the United States, inspired by former Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert. MUP aimed to attract business people and students of languages and international development, both in Australia and overseas.

A new building block was planned for near the main campus, with one building set aside for MUP. The project involved removing some old terrace houses and a lawn bowls club, though improvements to other buildings and a new public square helped ease concerns.

However, MUP faced difficulties. It mainly operated from the Hawthorn Language Centre in a Melbourne suburb, and the large building it had planned was taken over by the University of Melbourne and renamed the Alan Gilbert Building. A key part of MUP’s work was creating distance education courses for the Universitas 21 (U21) platform, and later on its own. U21Global struggled to attract students and was eventually sold at heavy losses. Changes to government rules allowing public universities to offer more full-fee courses, along with more Australian universities expanding overseas campuses, also affected MUP.

In 2001, the Labor state government scrutinized MUP, but it was re-accredited in 2003 with targets to improve research. The following year, Alan Gilbert left for the University of Manchester, and his successor, Glyn Davis, was less supportive of the private venture. John Cain, former Premier of Victoria, was a vocal critic of MUP in his book Off Course.

On 7 June 2005, Glyn Davis announced that Melbourne University Private would close. Some parts, including the School of Enterprise, were merged back into the University of Melbourne and continued to operate, but the Hawthorn English Language Centre remained separate. Other parts, including the international projects arm, were sold. CEO David Lloyd resigned at the announcement. Alan Gilbert did not comment on the decision.

Over eight years, MUP reportedly lost about A$20 million, though critics estimate the total cost could have been as high as A$150 million when including pre-start investments. At closure, MUP had about 600 fee-paying students, far short of the 2,500 it had hoped to enroll by 2008.