So I don't really get it. If you are an education institution in Australia, then you would want the .edu.au right? Or if you provide education globally you would want .edu ?
Or even something like .education or .training I can kinda understand. But .monash ... implies they are going beyond traditional Uni offerings perhaps?
i'm trying to think outside the square on this and i know i may get trashed, i am not a fan of these TLD's but i don't see this as a commercial venture more of just ownership.
they don't need SEO rankings as they will just promote the brand. if they go down the .edu.au and .edu path they keep paying renewals and we don't know what their plans are.
with .monash they can push out heaps of domains they would not normally be able to have eg: sydney.monash , so by making this move they are in control.
accountancy.monash , engineering.monash etcccccc
the value of the investment would be the ongoing costs being worth it?
tim