The Australian National University is a public university in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Located in the suburb of Acton, the main campus encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national institutes. Founded in 1946, it is the only university to have been created by the Parliament of Australia. Originally a postgraduate research university, ANU commenced undergraduate teaching in 1960 when it integrated the Canberra University College, which had been established in 1929 as a campus of the University of Melbourne. ANU enrolls 10,052 undergraduate and 10,840 postgraduate students and employs 3,753 staff. The university's endowment stood at A$1.13 billion in 2012.
ANU is consistently ranked among the world's top universities. ANU is ranked co-equal 19th in the world (first in Australia) with King's College London by the 2015/16 QS World University Rankings, and 45th in the world (second in Australia) by the 2014/15 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In the 2014 Times Higher Education Global Employ ability University Ranking, an annual ranking of university graduates' employ ability, ANU was ranked 20th in the world (first in Australia). ANU is ranked 89th (first in Australia) in the 2015 Leiden ranking. ANU is ranked first in the 4 Palmer category in the Ed universal ranking. ANU is positioned in the Top 10% in teaching, Top 10% in international outlook and Top 10% in research in the world in 2016.
ANU counts six Nobel laureates among its faculty and alumni. 94% of ANU research is rated as 'above world standard' by Australian Government's Excellence in Research for Australia Report 2012. Students entering ANU in 2013 had a median Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of 93, the equal-highest among Australian universities. ANU was named the world's 7th most international university in a 2014 study by Times Higher Education.
History:
Calls for the establishment of a national university in Australia began as early as 1900. After the location of the nation's capital, Canberra, was determined in 1908, land was set aside for the university at the foot Black Mountain in the city designs by Walter Burley Griffin. Planning for the university was disrupted by World War II but resumed with the creation of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction in 1942, ultimately leading to the passage of the Australian National University Act 1946 by the Parliament of Australia on 1 August 1946.
A group of eminent Australian scholars returned from overseas to join the university, including Sir Howard Florey (co-developer of medicinal penicillin), Sir Mark Oliphant (a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project), Sir Keith Hancock (the Chichele Professor of Economic History at Oxford) and Sir Raymond Firth (a professor of anthropology at LSE). Economist Sir Douglas Copland was appointed as ANU's first Vice-Chancellor and former Prime Minister Stanley Bruce served as the first Chancellor. ANU was originally organised into four centres—the Research Schools of Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Pacific Studies and the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
The first resident's hall, University House, was opened in 1954 for faculty members and postgraduate students. Mount Stromboli Observatory, established by the federal government in 1924, became part of ANU in 1957. The first locations of the ANU Library, the Menzies and Chiefly buildings, opened in 1963. The Australian Forestry School, located in Canberra since 1927, was amalgamated by ANU in 1965.
Canberra University College:
Canberra University College (CUC) was the first institution of higher education in the national capital, having been established in 1929 and enrolling its first undergraduate pupils in 1930. Its founding was led by Sir Robert Garran, one of the drafters of the Australian Constitution and the first Solicitor-General of Australia.[20] CUC was affiliated with the University of Melbourne and its degrees were granted by that university. Academic leaders at CUC included historian Manning Clark, political scientist Finley Crisp, poet A. D. Hope and economist Heinz Arndt.
In 1960, CUC was integrated into ANU as the School of General Studies, initially with faculties in arts, economics, law and science. Faculties in Oriental studies and engineering were introduced later. Bruce Hall, the first residential college for undergraduates, opened in 1961. ANU School of Art located at the former Canberra High School building
Modern era:
The Canberra School of Music and the Canberra School of Art were amalgamated by ANU in 1992.
ANU established its Medical School in 2002, after obtaining federal government approval in 2000.
On 18 January 2003, the Canberra bush fires largely destroyed the Mount Stromboli Observatory. ANU astronomers now conduct research from the Siding Spring Observatory, which contains 10 telescopes including the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
In February 2013, financial entrepreneur and ANU graduate Graham Tuck well made the largest university donation in Australian history by giving $50 million to fund an undergraduate scholarship program at ANU. In 2014, 82% of ANU students voted for full fossil fuel divestment in a referendum of unprecedented size. ANU is well-known for its history of student activism and, in recent years, its fossil fuel divestment campaign, which is one of the longest-running and most successful in the country. The decision of the ANU Council to divest from two fossil fuel companies in 2014 was criticized by ministers in the Abbott government, but defended by Vice Chancellor Ian Young, who noted: On divestment, it is clear we were in the right and played a truly national and international leadership role. We seem to have played a major role in a movement which now seems unstoppable. ANU still has investments in major fossil fuel companies.
Academics:
ANU is governed by a 15-member Council, whose members include the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.[28] Gareth Evans, a former Foreign Minister of Australia, has been ANU Chancellor since 2010 and Brian Schmidt, an astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate, became Vice-Chancellor on 1 January 2016. Ian Chubb, Vice-Chancellor from 2001 to 2011, is now the Chief Scientist of Australia.
Undergraduate students are represented by the Australian National University Students' Association (ANUSA) and postgraduates by the Postgraduate and Research Students' Association (PARSA). The Australian National University Union manages catering and retail outlets and function amenities on behalf of all students.
In its most recent disclosure at the end of 2012, ANU recorded an endowment of A$1.13 billion.
University rankings:
Australian National University
QS World 19
QS Arts & Humanities 12
QS Engineering & Tech. 49
QS Life Sciences & Medicine 93
QS Natural Sciences 20
QS Social Sciences & Mgmt. 18
THE-WUR World 45
THE-WUR Arts & Humanities 16
ARWU World 74
Australian rankings
QS National 1
THE-WUR National 2
ARWU National 2
CWTS Leiden National 1
Rankings
ANU is consistently ranked among the world's top universities. In 2014, the university was placed 25th, 48th and 66th in the world by the QS, Times, and Shanghai rankings respectively.
ANU is also consistently ranked 1st in Australia by all major university rankings. ANU was ranked 1st in Australia in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2014, 3rd in 2013 and 1st in 2011-2012. In the 2014/15 QS World University Rankings, ANU placed 1st overall in Australia, with the university also ranked 1st in the fields of politics and international studies, history, philosophy, sociology, modern languages, mathematics, electrical engineering, earth and marine sciences, and geography. Five subjects also attained top ten world rankings, with politics and international studies placing 6th in the world, history 7th, geography 8th, linguistics 9th and philosophy 10th.
Colleges
ANU was reorganized in 2006 to create seven Colleges, each of which conducts both teaching and research.
Arts and Social Sciences:
The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences is divided into the Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) and the Research School of Humanities and the Arts (RSHA). Within RSSS there are schools dedicated to history, philosophy, sociology, political science and international relations, Middle Eastern studies and Latin American studies. RSHA contains schools focusing on anthropology, archaeology, classics, art history, English literature, drama, film studies, gender studies, linguistics, European languages as well as an art and music school. In 2013, ANU ranked 9th in the world in linguistics and 16th in the world for modern languages.
ANU College of Law
Asia and the Pacific:
The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific is a specialist center of Asian and Pacific studies and languages, with the largest number of experts in these fields of any university in the English-speaking world. The College is home to three academic schools: the Crawford School of Public Policy, a research intensive public policy school; the School of Culture History and Language, the nation's center dedicated to investigating and learning with and about the people, languages, and lands of Asia and the Pacific; and Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, the world's foremost collection of expertise in the politics and international affairs of Asia and the Pacific. It also houses the Australian Center on China in the World (CIW), the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) and the CSCAP Australia.
Business and Economics:
The ANU College of Business and Economics comprises four Research Schools, which in turn conduct research and teaching in economics, finance, accounting, actuarial studies, statistics, marketing and management. The college is professionally accredited with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, CPA Australia, the Australian Computer Society, the Actuaries Institute Australia, the Institute of Public Accountants, the Association of International Accountants, Chartered Financial Analyst Institute and attains membership of World Wide Web Consortium.
Engineering and Computer Science:
The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science is divided into two Research Schools, which study a range of engineering and computer science topics respectively. ANU is home to the National Computational Infrastructure National Facility and was a co-founder of NICTA, the chief information and communications technology research center in Australia. Research groups in ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science include Algorithms and Data, Applied Signal Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, Computer Systems, Computer Vision and Robotics, Data-Intensive Computing, Information and Human Centered Computing, Logic & Computation, Materials and Manufacturing, Semiconductor and Solar Cells, Software Intensive Systems Engineering, Solar Thermal Group, Systems and Control.
John Curtin School of Medical Research
Law
The ANU College of Law conducts legal research and teaching, with centers dedicated to commercial law, international law, public law and environmental law. In addition to numerous research programs, the College offers the professional LL.B. and J.D. degrees. It is the 7th oldest of Australia's 36 law schools and was ranked 3rd among Australian and 14th among world law schools by the 2012 QS Rankings. Students are given the chance to spend three weeks in Geneva concerning the institutional practice of International Law.