Finding theses

Most recent theses are available through Minerva Access, the University's institutional repository. 

Minerva includes PhD and Masters Research theses, as well as a smaller number of Honours and Masters Coursework theses.

Accessing Full-Text in Minerva Access

Open Access Theses

• Many theses are open access, which means anyone is able to read the full text online, and no subscription or login is required.
• Use the download link on the left to access a PDF of the thesis.

Restricted access theses

• Some theses are currently only available to University of Melbourne staff/students

• Use the login link and access with your unimelb username and password

Embargoed theses

• If a thesis is under full embargo, full-text is not available for internal or external access (including inter-library loan requests). It a thesis is under an external embargo, it can be requested by University staff and students for research purposes via Minerva Access.

• You will be able to view an abstract 

You can limit your results in Minerva Access to view only theses from your faculty.

1. Select your faculty from the list of Communities on the Minerva Access homepage. You may need to also choose your school on the next page. 

2. Select the option that includes Theses (rather than Research Publications) 

3.To further refine the list (ie. to only PhD theses) scroll down to use the Type menu on the far left menu bar.

University of Melbourne theses not available online are held in the Cultural Collections Reading Room on level 3 of the Baillieu Library, or in offsite storage. While you cannot physically browse the thesis collection, you can submit a request to view a thesis using the online form.

You can search the Library Catalogue to find our print collection of University of Melbourne theses

• To restrict your search to just theses, select University of Melbourne Theses from the drop-down menu to the right of the search bar

For more information on requesting to view print theses see the Special Collections website. (Note: Use the request form for Rare Books)

Some University of Melbourne theses are not available in print or Minerva Online but may be held in a faculty or school specific database. You can find a list of those databases below.