History

Photos from left to right above: W.E Hearn professor of history and political economy in 1855; founding Dean Professor Sir Douglas Copland; Harriet Aimes - the first woman to graduate from the BCom with a major in Accounting; and Jean Polglaze, the first woman appointed to lecture for the Faculty in 1939.

Quick facts

• The University of Melbourne was established in 1853 and is the oldest University in Victoria and the second-oldest in Australia.
• Economics has been taught at the University since W.E. Hearn was appointed as a professor of history and political economy in 1855.
• The Faculty was established in 1924 and the founding Dean was Professor Sir Douglas Copland.
• The Bachelor of Commerce degree commenced in 1925 and is now one of the most highly sought after degrees of its type in Australia.
• Marketing has been taught at the University since the 1930's.
• In 1954 A.A (later Sir Alex) Fitzgerald was appointed the first full-time professor of accounting in Australia.
• The MBA was introduced in 1963 and is now taught by the Melbourne Business School.
• The Faculty recently changed its name to Faculty of Business and Economics from Faculty of Economics and Commerce.

The foundations

The Faculty was established in 1924 with teaching for the Bachelor of Commerce degree commencing on 2 March, 1925. Economics, however, has been taught at the University of Melbourne since its foundation. W.E. Hearn was appointed as a professor of history and political economy in 1855. The foundation Dean of the Faculty was Professor Sir Douglas Copland who remained a leading figure in Australian economics and politics until his death in 1971. One of the Faculty's lecture auditoriums is named after him.

Founding women

The first woman to graduate from the Bachelor of Commerce (with a major in Accounting) was Harriett Amies. She was amongst the first small cohort of students studying Accountancy in 1925, the commencement year of the new Faculty. She was also the first female to qualify for membership of the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants (a predecessor of CPA Australia) on the basis of her tertiary qualifications.

Jean Polglaze — BCom (1932) and MCom (1936)— was was the first woman to be appointed to a temporary lectureship in 1936, obtaining an ongoing position in 1939 on her return from Cambridge where she received a Rockefeller Fellowship.  

The inaugural Bachelor of Commerce graduates in 1927

Pioneers in business education

The Faculty has always been a pioneer in business education in Australia. Marketing has been taught since the 1930's; in 1954 it appointed A.A Fitzgerald as the first full-time professor of accounting in Australia; the MBA degree was introduced in 1963 (now taught in the Melbourne Business School). More recently, the Faculty has introduced a number of Masters Degrees in various disciplines including applied finance, e-Commerce, business and IT and in international business.

The student population - then and now

The student population has changed from an initial intake in 1925 of predominantly part-time students working in commerce in the city of Melbourne to full-time students drawn from Australia and overseas who are amongst the most able of their generation. Since 1925, over 36,000 students have graduated from the Faculty. Many of these graduates now occupy senior positions in business, government and academia, both within Australia and internationally.