The Australian National University (ANU) is a national research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and 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 ranked 1st in Australia and the whole of Oceania, 20th in the world by the 2018 QS World University Rankings, and 47th in the world (second in Australia) by the 2016/17 Times Higher Education. ANU was named the world's 7th (first in Australia) most international university in a 2017 study by Times Higher Education. In the 2017 Times Higher Education Global Employability University Ranking, an annual ranking of university graduates' employability, ANU was ranked 21st in the world (first in Australia). ANU is ranked 100th (first in Australia) in the CWTS Leiden ranking. ANU Press online has the updated release of ANU's scholarly publications. The university is particularly well known for its programmes in the arts and social sciences, and ranks among the best in the world for a number of disciplines including politics and international relations, social policy, and geography.
ANU counts six Nobel laureates and 49 Rhodes scholars among its faculty and alumni. The university has educated two prime ministers, 30 current Australian ambassadors and more than a dozen current heads of Government departments of Australia.
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History
Post-war origins
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 of 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 Chifley Government 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 residents' hall, University House, was opened in 1954 for faculty members and postgraduate students. Mount Stromlo Observatory, established by the federal government in 1924, became part of ANU in 1957. The first locations of the ANU Library, the Menzies and Chifley 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. 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 Finlay 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.
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 bushfires largely destroyed the Mount Stromlo 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 Tuckwell made the largest university donation in Australian history by giving $50 million to fund an undergraduate scholarship program at ANU.
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 criticised 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. [...] [W]e seem to have played a major role in a movement which now seems unstoppable.
As of 2014 ANU still had investments in major fossil fuel companies.
A survey conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2017 found that the ANU had the second highest incidence of sexual assault and sexual harassment. 3.5 per cent of respondents from the ANU reported being sexually assaulted in 2016. Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt apologised to victims of sexual assault and harassment.
In recent years the ANU has come under pressure with funding and staff cuts in the School of Music in 2011-15 and in the School of Culture, History and Language in 2016. However, there is a range of global (governmental) endowments available for Arts and Social Sciences, designated only for ANU. Some courses are now delivered online.
Maps Australian National University
Campus
The main campus of ANU extends across the Canberra suburb of Acton, which consists of 358 acres (1.45 km2) of mostly parkland with university buildings landscaped within. ANU is roughly bisected by Sullivans Creek, part of the Murray-Darling basin, and is bordered by the native bushland of Black Mountain, Lake Burley Griffin, the suburb of Turner and the Canberra central business district. Many university sites are of historical significance dating from the establishment of the national capital, with over 40 buildings recognised by the Commonwealth Heritage List and several others on local lists.
With over 10,000 trees on its campus, ANU won an International Sustainable Campus Network Award in 2009 and was ranked the 2nd greenest university campus in Australia in 2011.
Four of Australia's five learned societies are based at ANU--the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Law. The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science and the National Film and Sound Archive are also located at ANU, while the National Museum of Australia and CSIRO are situated next to the campus.
ANU occupies additional locations including Mount Stromlo Observatory on the outskirts of Canberra, Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, a campus at Kioloa on the South Coast of New South Wales and a research unit in Darwin.
Library
The library of ANU originated in 1948 with the appointment of the first librarian, Arthur McDonald. The library holds over 2.5 million physical volumes distributed across six branches--the Chifley, Menzies, Hancock, Art & Music, and Law Libraries and the external Print Repository. Chifley library is accessible for ANU staff and students 24 hours a day.
Residential halls and colleges
Eight residential facilities are affiliated with ANU--Bruce Hall, Ursula Hall, Burgmann College, John XXIII College, Toad Hall, Burton & Garran Hall, Graduate House and Fenner Hall. All are located on campus except Fenner Hall, which is located in the nearby suburb of Braddon. Students also reside in the privately run units adjoining the campus--Davey Lodge, Kinloch Lodge, Warrumbul Lodge and Lena Karmel Lodge. In 2010, the non-residential Griffin Hall was established for students living off-campus. Another off-campus student accommodation was launched by UniGardens Pty, University Gardens located in Belconnen.
Organisation
Colleges
ANU was reorganised in 2006 to create seven Colleges, each College leads 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 2017, ANU ranked 6th in the world for politics, 8th in the world for Social Policy and Administration and 11th in the world for development studies.
Asia and the Pacific
The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific is a specialist centre of Asian and Pacific studies and languages, formerly among the largest collections 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 centre 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, Australia's foremost collection of expertise in the politics and international affairs of Asia and the Pacific. The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre is also a component of the College. Peter Drysdale laid the intellectual foundation of APEC. The college also houses the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW), the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) and the CSCAP Australia. Year in Asia program students with ANU GPA 5.0 or above will be able to travel to one Asian country to study for one year to specialize in one Asian language. The College is affiliated with Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Indiana University's Pan Asia Institute.
Business and Economics
The ANU College of Business and Economics comprises four Research Schools, which carries 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 centre in Australia. Research groups in ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science include Algorithms and Data, Applied Signal Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, Computer Systems, Computer Vision and Robotics, Data-Intensive Computing, Information and Human Centred Computing, Logic & Computation, Materials and Manufacturing, Semiconductor and Solar Cells, Software Intensive Systems Engineering, Solar Thermal Group, Systems and Control. Disciplinary areas include theories, operations and cutting-edge research that will enhance user experience by integrating ever-evolving information technology methods in engineering applications, with the emphasis on energy source.
Law
The ANU College of Law is covering legal research and teaching, with centres 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 2nd among Australian and 12th among world law schools by the 2018 QS Rankings. Students are given the chance to spend three weeks in Geneva concerning the institutional practice of International Law.
Medicine, Biology and Environment
The ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment encompasses the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR), the ANU Medical School, the Fenner School of Environment & Society and Research Schools of Biology, Psychology and Population Health. JCSMR was established in 1948 as a result of the vision of Nobel laureate Howard Florey. Three further Nobel Prizes have been won as a result of research at JCSMR--in 1963 by John Eccles and in 1996 by Peter Doherty and Rolf M. Zinkernagel.
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
The ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences comprises the Research Schools of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Mathematical Sciences and Physics. Under the direction of Mark Oliphant, nuclear physics was one the university's most notable early research priorities, leading to the construction of a 500 megajoule homopolar generator and a 7.7 megaelectronvolts cyclotron in the 1950s. These devices were to be used as part of a 10.6 gigaelectronvolt synchrotron particle accelerator that was never completed, however they remained in use for other research purposes. ANU has been home to eight particle accelerators over the years and operates the 14UD and LINAS accelerators. Brian Schmidt (astrophysicist at Mount Stromlo Observatory) received the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Academics
Governance
ANU is governed by a 15-member Council, whose members include the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. Gareth Evans, a former Foreign Minister of Australia, has been ANU Chancellor since 2010 and Brian Schmidt, an astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate, has served as Vice-Chancellor since 1 January 2016.
Finances
In its most recent disclosure at the end of 2012, ANU recorded an endowment of A$1.13 billion.
Rankings
ANU was ranked 24th in the world (first in Australia) by the 2019 QS World University Rankings, and 47nd in the world (second in Australia) by the 2016/17 Times Higher Education. ANU was named the world's seventh (first in Australia) most international university in a 2017 study by Times Higher Education. In the 2015 Times Higher Education Global Employability University Ranking, an annual ranking of university graduates' employability, ANU was ranked 32nd in the world (first in Australia). ANU was ranked 100th in the world (first in Australia) in the CWTS Leiden ranking.
In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017, ANU was ranked sixth in the world for politics, eighth in the world for social policy and administration, tenth in the world for arts and humanities, thirteenth in the world for archaeology and fourteenth in the world for history.
Students entering ANU in 2013 had a median Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of 93, the equal-highest among Australian universities.
Student life
Australian National University Students' Association (ANUSA) is the student's union of the Australian National University and represents undergraduate student, while the Postgraduate and Research Students' Association (PARSA) represents postgraduates. The Australian National University Union manages catering and retail outlets and function amenities on behalf of all students.
Woroni
Woroni is the student newspaper of the Australian National University. Woroni is published fortnightly in full colour tabloid format, and features broad coverage of university and local news, opinion, features, arts and culture, sports, and leisure.
Notable alumni and faculty
Notable past faculty include Mark Oliphant, Keith Hancock, Manning Clark, Derek Freeman, H. C. Coombs, John Crawford, Hedley Bull, Frank Fenner, C. P. Fitzgerald, Pierre Ryckmans, A. L. Basham and philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to former ANU Chancellor Howard Florey and faculty members John Eccles, John Harsanyi, Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Peter Doherty and Brian Schmidt. Notable present scholars include Hilary Charlesworth, Ian McAllister, Hugh White, Warwick McKibbin, Keith Dowding, Amin Saikal and Jeremy Shearmur.
ANU alumni are often visible in government. Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Ministers, attended the university, as did senior politicians Barry O'Farrell, Nick Minchin, Kim Beazley Sr, Peter Garrett, Craig Emerson, Stephen Conroy, Gary Gray, Warren Snowdon, Joe Ludwig and Catherine King and Michael Keenan. ANU has produced 30 current Australian Ambassadors and more than a dozen current heads of Australian Public Service departments, including Prime Minister & Cabinet secretary Michael Thawley, Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson, Finance secretary Jane Halton, Education secretary Lisa Paul, Agriculture secretary Paul Grimes, Attorney-General's secretary Chris Moraitis, Environment secretary Gordon de Brouwer, Employment secretary Renee Leon, Social Services secretary Finn Pratt, Industry secretary Glenys Beauchamp, ASIS director-general Nick Warner and ACCC chairman Rod Sims. Graduates also include Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Gordon Darcy Lilo, Foreign Minister of Mongolia since 2017 Damdin Tsogtbaatar, former Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Don Brash, former British cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.
Other notable alumni include High Court of Australia judges Stephen Gageler and Geoffrey Nettle, Chief Federal Magistrate John Pascoe, human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, Kellogg's CEO John Bryant, former Singapore Airlines CEO Cheong Choong Kong, Indiana University president Michael McRobbie, University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellors Alan Gilbert and Glyn Davis, mathematician John H. Coates, computer programmer Andrew Tridgell, public intellectual Clive Hamilton, psychologist and journalist Bettina Arndt, and economists Ross Garnaut, Peter Drysdale and John Quiggin.
Affiliations
ANU is a member of the Group of Eight, Association of Pacific Rim Universities and the International Alliance of Research Universities.
ANU participates in the US Financial Direct Loan program. The RG Menzies Scholarship to Harvard University is awarded annually to at least one talented Australian who has gained admission to a Harvard graduate school. ANU and University of Melbourne are the only two Australian partner universities of Yale University's Fox Fellowship program.
See also
- List of universities in Australia
- Demos Journal (student publication)
- Australian National University Boat Club
References
External links
- Australian National University
Source of article : Wikipedia
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