History of Monash University
1970s onwards
1970s onwards
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From the mid\-1960s to the early 1970s, Monash became the centre of [student radicalism](/wiki/Student_activism "Student activism") in Australia. It was the site of many mass student demonstrations, particularly concerning Australia's role in [Vietnam War](/wiki/Vietnam_War "Vietnam War") and [conscription](/wiki/Conscription "Conscription"). The origins of mass student demonstrations in Melbourne were those against [capital punishment](/wiki/Capital_punishment "Capital punishment"), and some of the largest protests occurred at Monash in the final years before it was abolished in Victoria. By the late 1960s, several student organisations, some of which were influenced by or supporters of communism, turned their focus to Vietnam, with numerous blockades and sit\-ins. In 1971, for example, over 4500 students—a substantial proportion of the Monash student population at the time—carried out a blockade on University Council chambers. The student meetings held at Monash during this time remain the largest in Australia's history. In May 1969, one meeting saw over 6,000 gather to vote against a disciplinary statute passed by the University Council. The most famous student radical was [Albert Langer](/wiki/Albert_Langer "Albert Langer"), who regularly made newspaper headlines and caused major disruptions at the Clayton Campus. So great was publicity surrounding the protests that many in Australia and around the world first heard of Monash not because of its teaching and research, but because of its protests. In one extraordinary event that came to be known as the Monash Siege, students forced then Prime Minister [Malcolm Fraser](/wiki/Malcolm_Fraser "Malcolm Fraser") to hide in a basement at the Alexander Theatre, in a major protest over the [Whitlam dismissal](/wiki/Whitlam_dismissal "Whitlam dismissal"). In recent years, student radicalism has died down, although there have been occasional protests on government higher education policy.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Monash's most publicised research came through its pioneering of [in\-vitro fertilisation](/wiki/In-vitro_fertilisation "In-vitro fertilisation") (IVF). Led by Professors [Carl Wood](/wiki/Carl_Wood "Carl Wood") and [Alex Lopata](/wiki/Alex_Lopata "Alex Lopata"), the Monash IVF Program achieved the world's first early IVF pregnancy in 1973\. In 1980, the first IVF baby in Australia was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne as a result of the work of Alex Lopata and Ian Johnston. This eventually became a massive source of revenue for the University at a time when university funding in Australia was beginning to slow down. In addition to the Medicine Faculty's work in IVF, Monash academics shaped the practice in other ways. Professor [Louis Waller](/wiki/Louis_Waller "Louis Waller") of the Law School created the model IVF legislation adopted in Victoria, and philosophers [Peter Singer](/wiki/Peter_Singer "Peter Singer") and [Helga Kuhse](/wiki/Helga_Kuhse "Helga Kuhse") led the world in their consideration of the ethical implications of IVF, establishing the [Centre for Human Bioethics](/wiki/Centre_for_Human_Bioethics "Centre for Human Bioethics") in 1980\.


How has government higher education policy affected student protests at Monash?