MELBOURNE, UNIVERSITY OF

coeducational institution of higher learning in Melbourne, financed mainly by the national government. One of the oldest universities in Australia, it was founded by the Victoria legislature in 1853 and at first offered a liberal arts course. A law school was added in 1857, engineering instruction in 1860, and a medical school in 1862; a music conservatory, now the faculty of music, was opened in 1895. Between 1904 and 1924, schools of dentistry, agriculture, veterinary medicine, education, architecture, and commerce were established. Women were admitted to the arts and sciences courses in 1881 and to the medical school in 1887. The university underwent rapid expansion after World War II. In the 1960s a Board of Studies in Nuclear Science and Engineering and an Institute of Applied Economic Research were established, and new Indian, Indonesian, and Malayan studies were added.