Maloti RayName: Maloti Ray

Position: Research Education Officer

Contact: research (at) gsa.unimelb.edu.au

Welcome to the University of Melbourne.  My name is Maloti and I am the Research Education officer for 2008/09.  Previously, I worked with Americans and Democrats Abroad for global voter outreach during the 2008 US Presidential Election. Ongoing outreach projects are review assignments for Readings Books and the Graduate Student Association, as well as a literature workshop I hold at the secular-inclined St Michael’s on Collins Street -- which I think of as my atheist outreach across the aisle.  I am pleased to be a councilor and officer with GSA, the university-wide representative body for all graduate students at the University of Melbourne.

My role is twofold.  Firstly, I address the specific interests of research students by providing representation at university-wide committees and references for individual cases.  Secondly, I address the general interests of graduate students by participating in campaigns that will positively benefit our larger community. 

One such campaign is Fair Fares, our petition to the State Government of Victoria on behalf of all graduate and international students.

GSA works to amplify individual voices of the graduate student community and I welcome you to join the discussion in our very new Facebook group!

"That's Melbourne" - GSA Research Education Officer in Forum

Posted in: Research Education Officer
Recreating Melbourne's university quarter: making places

The university experience worldwide is characterised by a kind of temporary belonging for students. Organisations they interact with, buildings they live in, public places they socialise in, and their mobility through and beyond all these spaces, are central to their experience.

Educators agree that important learning for young adults occurs outside the classroom. If the practices of inner Melbourne universities and governments and the forms of housing and public places made available to students are regarded as arenas of social education, how might we plan and design for open, productive, temporary and often transnational communities on the northern edge of central Melbourne?

Panellists include:
  • Prof. Ruth Fincher, Geography, Uni. Melb.
  • Prof. Paolo Tombesi, Architecture, Uni. Melb.
  • Prof Paul Carter, Urban Design , Uni. Melb.
  • Ms Maloti Ray, Education Research Officer, Graduate Student Association, Uni. Melb.
Website: www.thatsmelbourne.com.au

The Law Against Students: Fair according to Lynne Kosky

Posted in: Research Students, Research Education Officer
On 18 September 2007, Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky introduced a Bill to the Legislative Assembly that sought to ban discrimination claims by international overseas students, over public transport fares. [1]   (While the governments of Victoria and the State refer to international students, Ms Kosky’s speech and bill uses the term “overseas students” to refer to the same students.)  The Bill subsequently passed into the Transport Act. [2]   The introduction of the Bill to the Committee and the second reading to the Legislative Assembly were based on convenient errors in her response to Committee and the Legislative Assembly, the latter of which claims compatibility with the Human Rights and Responsibilities Act.

Scholarly Works

Posted in: Research Students, Research Education Officer
Know who owns ideas. Some research students will find that their ideas are subject to policy on ownership. The Australian Government defines Intellectual Property (IP) as,

“… the property of your mind or intellect. In business terms, this also means your proprietary knowledge.”


The jurisprudence of Intellectual Property is a niche research field and the University specialist centre is the IP Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA), funded by IP Australia. IP will matter more in some research compared to others. Find out what is conventionally practiced in your faculty and how its researchers define scholarly works.

The Research Student Experience

Posted in: Research Students, Research Education Officer
Despite differences of institutional, disciplinary and individual contexts, a positive research student experience depends on a wellspring of motivation to progress towards completion.

In the University of Melbourne, the quality of support structures is not universal across faculties, departments and centres.  Structural inequities mean that financial and social capital will differ across research communities.