A national hub
Established to be a national hub of cutting-edge research, the Australian National University is one of the foremost research universities in the world. Among its world-class facilities are the most powerful computer in Australia, modern laboratories and lecture theatres, 2 million volumes lining the shelves of several libraries, and access to a comprehensive range of digital information.
The university is only a short walk from the centre of the national capital, Canberra, which combines the friendly atmosphere of rural Australia with the excitement and sophistication of an international city.
Beyond its central city campus, the university has observatories at Mount Stromlo near Canberra and at Siding Spring in western New South Wales, as well as the North Australia Research Unit in Darwin and a research centre at Kioloa on the New South Wales south coast.
A new generation of researchers
Since its foundation as a research-focused facility, the Australian National University has attracted leading academics and some of the brightest students from Australia and around the world to learn, research and exchange ideas.
Built around a group of distinguished Australian scholars— including penicillin visionary Lord Howard Florey, nuclear scientist Sir Mark Oliphant, and renowned economist Herbert ‘Nugget’ Coombs—the university attracted a new generation of researchers and quickly developed a reputation for excellence.
The university’s standing continued to flourish as luminaries such as Professor Manning Clark, Professor Bart Bok and Professor Hanna Neumann, the first female professor to reside at the university, made their mark.
National institutes have been established to bring together the university’s research and education expertise in specific areas—the environment, government and Asian and Pacific studies, for example. The national institutes have further enhanced the influence of the university.
An array of opportunities
The primary educational objective of the Australian National University is to be the university of choice for talented students—locally, nationally and internationally—by offering a unique range of research-led degree programs. The university also offers a huge variety of postgraduate study options, and there is intense competition for places.
The university has approximately 13,400 students. Of these, 8,700 are enrolled in undergraduate or non-award courses and more than 4,700 are doing postgraduate study—including around 1,800 students enrolled in PhDs. International students account for just over 20 per cent of the student population, there being more than 2,800 students from 90 countries.
Safety and friendliness are the hallmarks of campus life. Students strive for excellence in their chosen fields while at the same time enjoying the collegial atmosphere of the university.
Concentrated quality
Lord Florey, Nobel Prize winner for Physiology or Medicine in 1945, helped establish a reputation for and commitment to excellence at the Australian National University through his involvement in planning the university and his service as Chancellor.
Four other Nobel Prize winners completed a substantial portion of their prize-winning work at the university: Professors John Eccles, Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty for their medical research and Professor John C Harsanyi for economics.
Today, the Australian National University continues to perform extremely well. It was recently ranked the top university in Australia and 16th in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement. It also was rated the top university in Australia and 53rd in the world by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of Higher Education. ISI Highly Cited, a ranking of researchers who have made fundamental contributions to their discipline in the past 20 years, lists 21 Australian National University researchers among the top 50 Australians.
Forging international links
The Australian National University has forged close links with government, business and research institutions in Australia and abroad and is involved in collaborative projects with organisations ranging from NASA to the European Union.
The university is helping shape the future of the Asia–Pacific region through its pre-eminent expertise in international relations, language, culture and strategic studies. In recognition of this, the Australian Government has joined with the university to establish on campus the Asia–Pacific College of Diplomacy, offering advanced training to diplomats from across the region. The university is also home to the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, the only UNESCO centre for scientific communication.
Website: www.anu.edu.au
Organisational Structure:
http://info.anu.edu.au/ovc/Executive/040PP_University_Structure
