The
University of Queensland, commonly referred to as UQ, is an Australian
public research university primarily located in Queensland's capital
city Brisbane. Founded in 1909, UQ is one of Australia's oldest, most
selective and comprehensive university. The main campus is located in St
Lucia, southwest of the Brisbane City Central Business District, with
other major UQ campuses in Gatton, Herston and Ochsner Medical Center's
clinical school at New Orleans, United States of America. The University
of Queensland is a member of the Australia's research-intensive Group
of Eight, the global network of research universities University 21 and a
founding charter member of EdX, an online higher education consortium
led by Harvard and MIT.
UQ
is a sandstone university, which is well regarded and is consistently
ranked within the top 1 percent of all international university
rankings, along with other prestigious research universities. In 2015
for example, UQ is ranked next to Brown University, a member of the Ivy
League, in Shanghai's Academic Ranking of World Universities and
positioned ahead of King's College London and McGill University in the
U.S. News & World Report global ranking. UQ Business School's
flagship MBA program is also ranked 16th by The Economist Intelligence
Unit, bracketed by MIT (15th) and Yale (19th).
The
University of Queensland has produced numerous alumni with significant
contributions to science, arts, medicine, education, business, politics
and law in Australia and throughout the world. Several notable examples
include the Nobel Laureate winning scientist Dr Peter Doherty,
Oscar-winning artist Geoffrey Rush, former Chief Justice of the High
Court of Australia Sir Gerard Brennan, Chancellor of University of
California, San Francisco - Dr Sam Hawgood,[9] Principal and President
of King's College London - Dr Edward Byrne, CEO of Dow Chemical the
second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue - Andrew N.
Liveris, first female Governor-General of Australia Dame Quentin Bryce,
former Singapore's Minister for Defence, Minister for Manpower, present
Chairman of Keppel Corporation and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) - Dr
Lee Boon Yang, consecutive Olympics gold medal winner David Theile and
global top three most cited academic and world-renowned clinician Dr
Graham Colditz.
History:
Proposals
for a university in Queensland began in the 1870s. A Royal Commission
in 1874, chaired by Sir Charles Lilley, recommended the immediate
establishment of a university. Those against a university argued that
technical rather than academic education was more important in an
economy dominated by primary industry. Those in favor of the university,
in the face of this opposition, distanced themselves from Oxford and
Cambridge and proposed instead a model derived from the mid-western
states of the USA. A second Royal Commission in 1891 recommended the
inclusion of five faculties in a new university; Arts, Law, Medicine,
Science and Applied Science. Education generally was given a low
priority in Queensland's budgets, and in a colony with a literacy rate
of 57% in 1861, primary education was the first concern well ahead of
secondary and technical education. The government, despite the findings
of the Royal Commissions, was unwilling to commit funds to the
establishment of a university.
In
1893 the Queensland University Extension Movement was begun by a group
of private individuals who organised public lecture courses in adult
education, hoping to excite wider community support for a university in
Queensland. In 1894, 245 students were enrolled in the extension classes
and the lectures were described as practical and useful. In 1906 the
University Extension Movement staged the University Congress, a forum
for interested delegates to promote the idea of a university. Opinion
was mobilized, a fund was started and a draft Bill for a Queensland
University was prepared. Stress was laid on the practical aspects of
university education and its importance for the commerce of Queensland.
The proceedings of the Congress were forwarded to Queensland Premier
William Kids ton. In October 1906, sixty acres in Victoria Park were
gazetted for university purposes.
The
University of Queensland was established by an Act of State Parliament
on December 10, 1909 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queensland's
separation from the colony of New South Wales. The Act allowed for the
university to be governed by a senate of 20 men and Sir William
MacGregor, the incoming Governor, was appointed the first chancellor
with Reginald Heber Roe as the vice chancellor. Government House (now
Old Government House) in George Street was set aside for the University
following the departure of the Governor to the Barron residence
Fernberg, sparking the first debates about the best location for the
university.
In
1910 the first teaching faculties were created. These included
Engineering, Classics, Mathematics and Chemistry. In December of the
same year, the Senate appointed the first four professors; Bertram
Dillon Steele in chemistry, John Lundie Michie in classics, Henry James
Priestley in mathematics and Alexander James Gibson in engineering. In
1911 the first students enrolled. The University's first classes in the
Government house were held in 1911 with 83 commencing students and Sir
William MacGregor is the first chancellor (with Reginald Heber Roe as
vice-chancellor). The development of the University was delayed by World
War I, but after the first world war the university enrollments for
education and research took flight as demand for higher education
increased in Australia. Thus, in the early 1920s the growing University
had to look for a more spacious campus as its original site at George
Street, Brisbane has limited room for expansion.
Academic faculties
The Transnational Research Institute, The university has six faculties to support both research and teaching activities.
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Faculty of Health and Behavioral Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Bio medical Sciences
Faculty of Science
UQ
has a semester-based modular system for conducting academic courses.
The Australian higher education model features a combination of the
British system, such as small group teaching (tutorials) and the
American system (course credits).
Research:
Queensland
has a strong research focus in science, medicine and technology. The
university's research advancement includes pioneering the development of
the cervical cancer vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, by UQ Professor
Ian Frazer and then subsequent improvements by researchers from the
United States. In 2009, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation
reported that UQ have taken the lead in numerous areas of cancer
research. In 2010, Thomson Reuters named eight UQ professors to its list
of Highly Cited Researchers. In the Commonwealth Government's
Excellence in Research for Australia 2012 National Report, UQ's research
is rated above world standard in more broad fields than at any other
Australian university (in 22 broad fields); and more UQ researchers are
working in research fields that ERA has assessed as above world standard
than at any other Australian university. UQ research in bio medical and
clinical health sciences, technology, engineering, biological sciences,
chemical sciences, environmental sciences, and physical sciences were
ranked above world standard (rating 5). In 2015, UQ is ranked by Nature
Index as the research institution with the highest volume of research
output in both interdisciplinary journals Nature and Science within the
southern hemisphere, with approximately two fold more output than the
global average.
Besides
disciplinary focused research within the academic faculties, the
University of Queensland maintains a number of interdisciplinary
research institutes and centers at the national, state and university
levels. With the support from the Queensland Government, the Australian
Government and major donor The Atlantic Philanthropies, the University
of Queensland dedicates basic, transnational and applied research via
these eight research-focused institutes:
Institute
for Molecular Bio science - within the Queensland Bio science Precinct
which also houses scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation
Transnational
Research Institute, which houses The University of Queensland's
Diamante Institute,
School of Medicine and the Mater Medical Research
Institute
Australian Institute for Bio engineering and Nanotechnology
Institute for Social Science Research
Sustainable Mineral Institute
Global Change Institute
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Queensland Brain Institute