Day 8: Swinburne University of Technology

A beautiful run in the botanical gardens, a tour of Swinburne, a Director’s Suite seat to see The Dark Knight.

I woke up early to take advantage of the sun, hopped across Flinders Street and down along the Yarra River to the Royal Botanical gardens. Species of plants from all over the world are planted along this long, graceful hump of a hill. It’s a prime location, which the aboriginal people knew first; monuments in the garden stand witness to the seizure of this sacred land from them.

Swinburne’s Prahran Campus
A quick subway train ride from downtown Melbourne (3 stops; 15 minutes) took me to the suburb of Prahran, to one Swinburne University’s smaller campuses. Like La Trobe’s Bendigo campus, this one specializes in certain subjects and is not the main campus for the university. I wanted to visit because of growing student interest in media studies, graphic design and interior design. Also here is a National Academy of Circus Arts (walking by it, I glimpsed trapeze artists high on the swing!).

Academics
Swinburne’s design program (includes graphic design, illustration, interior architecture/design, film and television) is unique; there are no fine arts, but instead a focus on branding, advertising and the serious tools for using design in business, including the use of design in other fields. Everything at Swinburne, holding true to its trade school roots, is practical with a focus on getting students into the field. Example: Design students are working with Nike to design a rowing shoe that will whittle 10 seconds/km off a crew team’s time. There are no exams as all work is project-driven and project-assessed. Most lectures would have about 100-130 students with 15-24 students in a tutorial or “studio” as they call it. Most work occurs in these studios. In interior design, it’s only these studios. It’s architecture, digital representation, and construction technology. Even second year students choose from 1 of 8 studios offered, many are real projects (ex. refit of a warehouse building for retail space in Melbourne). As one professor said “this isn’t pin cushions and curtains”.

Student support
Unlike La Trobe’s Bendigo campus, there are not dedicated student support services on Swinburne’s Prahran campus (the great team of Swinburne International is based at the main Hawthorne campus), probably because there is no housing at Prahran. Prahran is sheer academics at this point, with a downtown of small shops and restaurants, a library, and one on-campus café, but no central student square. This is the one downside of studying at Prahran – students travel to take classes here, but are housed at Hawthorne, a 20-25 train ride away.

Swinburne’s Hawthorne Campus (main campus)
Swinburne’s main campus is literally right off the subway (again, just a few stops from downtown Melbourne). The buildings are all modern, with glass, metal, and the color red. The campus is urban and located along the main streets of this small city. Swinburne is part of Australia’s TAFE system (similar to community colleges in the U.S.), and part of campus is devoted to these students studying, learning English, gaining work-based knowledge before entering in the Bachelor’s system. Lends to the diversity on campus.

Academics

Swinburne offers academic subjects commonly of interest to study abroaders (art, anthropology, history, psychology, etc.), and is strong in engineering. Again, holding true to that practical, technical background. I was interested in visiting their engineering dept. and wasn’t disappointed as you can probably see by the photos that accompany this entry. Mechanical engineering, civil engineering, photonics, aviation/pilot training, and cross-discipline classes and degrees with design and business are all on offer. One student who left a professor’s office as I was leaving was struggling with leaving the school early – he’d been offered an engineering position at a firm, but hadn’t finished his degree yet! Students were working on bio-engineering projects (one had to do with ovarian cancer and students wore purple boots during an event to raise awareness) and others were working on this year’s race car entry. Yep, students design the entire car and compete internationally.

Student support
Swinburne International is located in the central quad on the main campus, next to the student café’s, health clinic, travel agency, etc. They run orientations, offer excursions, and are happy to speak with students about most anything.

Housing
Housing is on campus in self-catered (i.e., no one is cooking for you) apartments that are fully furnished, even down to the cups and spoons. There are common areas with flat screen tvs and pool tables. Pretty swanky.

Comparison of La Trobe U. and Swinburne U. of Tech. (the two unis I visited in Melbourne)

La Trobe U –
- Traditional, liberal arts-based research uni
- Campus setting with apartments, green spaces, trees, nature preserve
- located 25 minutes outside Melbourne central, with train into city

Swinburne U.
- Practical, trade-based background with hands-on focus
- Urban setting
- Located 10-15 minutes outside Melbourne central, with train into city

Both: great places for our students!!!

The Dark Knight
Can’t close this entry without mentioning this awesome theatre located in Melbourne Central shopping mall. For $10 extra dollars, you get a Director’s Suite. Oh yeh. This means the theatre only seats 30 people in large, leather loungers with waiters serving drinks and food. We are missing out in the U.S., let me tell ya. Perhaps I can work with business students to introduce this movie-watching-model-of-pampering to the North American market…hmmm….

Joke of the day
(courtesy of Dr. Tony Jarvis, La Trobe U.) and found particularly funny to this mother of a budding drummer:

Q: What’s the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a drumkit?
A: The position of the dirt bag.