National Centre to Join HUMCASS

David Dunstan
Director, National Centre for Australian Studies
Monash University

The National Centre for Australian Studies (NCAS) at Monash University is to join with the School of Humanities Communications and Social Sciences (HUMCASS).

NCAS was created in 1989 as a Commonwealth Government initiative to further Australian Studies in tertiary education. It consists of 14 research and teaching staff with expertise in Australian Studies, Tourism, Communications and Media Studies and Publishing and Editing.

The Faculty of Arts at Monash University consists of eight schools into which its various disciplines and centres are grouped. NCAS was one of the foundation units in the School of Political and Social Inquiry when the Faculty school structure was brought into being in 1999.

The transfer is the result of extensive discussions between Dr David Dunstan, the Director of NCAS, the head of HUMCASS, Associate Professor Harry Ballis, and the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Gippsland campus of Monash University, Professor Brian Mackenzie. The move has been given support from the Vice-Chancellor's Group at Monash University and is effective from 1 July 2005.

HUMCASS has strengths in History/Politics, Sociology, Communications, Writing and Public Relations, Journalism, Indigenous and Foundation studies, and offers complementary undergraduate programs to NCAS's expertise in Australian Studies, Tourism, Communications and Media Studies, and Publishing and Editing, together with a growing international role in Australian Studies.

With around seventy members of academic and administrative staff, the merger makes the combined unit one of the largest schools of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Go8 Group of Universities.

NCAS will be working to establish a presence at Gippsland Campus. Staff will be working closely with our new Head of School, Associate Professor Ballis, the Centre for Gippsland Studies, the Gippsland Research and Information Service, the Institute for Regional Studies and other successful HUMCASS and Monash Gippsland campus programs and centers.

NCAS graduate and undergraduate teaching programs at the Clayton, city and Peninsula campuses will continue to be offered at those locations. NCAS has staff and teaching programs currently active at Clayton, Peninsula, Caulfield and central city locations.

This a welcome and significant strategic decision of the University that will, in time, strengthen the Gippsland campus, increasing its research effort and its regional and international profile. NCAS will continue to maintain and develop its metropolitan programs and international role.

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