The Marie Reay Teaching Centre and another building seen behind the Kambri precinct.
The Australian National University (ANU) is a publicresearch university and member of the Group of Eight, 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.[14]
Established in 1946, ANU is the only university to have been created by the Parliament of Australia.[a] It traces its origins to Canberra University College, which was established in 1929 and was integrated into ANU in 1960.[15] ANU enrols 13,329 undergraduate and 11,021 postgraduate students and employs 4,517 staff.[16] The university's endowment stood at A$1.8 billion as of 2018.[17]
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.[15]
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.[15]
The Canberra School of Music and the Canberra School of Art combined in 1988 to form the Canberra Institute of the Arts, and amalgamated with the university as the ANU Institute of the Arts in 1992.[15][25][26]
ANU established its Medical School in 2002, after obtaining federal government approval in 2000.[27]
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.[30]
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.[31] 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.[32]
As of 2014[update] ANU holds investments in major fossil fuel companies.[33]
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.[34][35] 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.[36]
The ANU had funding and staff cuts in the School of Music in 2011–15[37] and in the School of Culture, History and Language in 2016.[38][39][40] However, there is a range of global (governmental) endowments available for Arts and Social Sciences, designated only for ANU.[41] Some courses are now delivered online.[42]
In 2017, Chinese hackers infiltrated the computers of Australian National University, potentially compromising national security research conducted at the university.[44][45]
Campus
Acton, CanberraThe Di Riddell Student Centre opened in 2019Side of the Kambri Cultural Centre, The Australian National University, Canberra.
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.[46] 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.[47]
With over 10,000 trees on its campus,[48] ANU won an International Sustainable Campus Network Award in 2009[49] and was ranked the 2nd greenest university campus in Australia in 2011.[50]
The library of ANU originated in 1948 with the appointment of the first librarian, Arthur McDonald.[15] The library holds over 2.5 million physical volumes[52] distributed across six branches—the Chifley, Menzies, Hancock, Art & Music, and Law Libraries and the external Print Repository.[53] Chifley and Hancock library are both accessible for ANU staff and students 24 hours a day.[54][55]
Eleven on-campus residential halls are affiliated with ANU—Bruce Hall, Burgmann College, Burton & Garron Hall, Fenner Hall, John XXIII College, Ursula Hall, Wamburun Hall, Wright Hall, Yukeembruk Village, Graduate House and Toad Hall.[56] Together these residence accommodate for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Four UniLodge residences are also available to ANU students, situated just off campus—Davey Lodge, Kinloch Lodge, Warrumbul Lodge and Lena Karmel Lodge.[56] 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[57] located in Belconnen.
In 2014, 2019 and 2020 there were major protests organised by student leaders across all of the ANU's halls of residence[58] against steep rent hikes, neglect of pastoral care support, and repeated failures to address issues relating to sexual assault and sexual harassment.[59] Though supported by a majority of students living on residence, the ANU's response to past protests has been mixed, with many recommendations and requests for student consultations ignored. The outcome of the 2020 protests revolve around demands for stronger SASH policy, accountability surrounding tariff rises, and commitments to adequate pastoral care; the outcome of these protests is as yet unknown. Protests have been held since on the issue, with one high-profile one occurring on the same day as the annual Open Day in 2024.[60]
Kinloch Lodge
Lena Karmel Lodge
Davey Lodge
Drill Hall Gallery
The Drill Hall Gallery is housed a drill hall dating from the 1940s, for use in training soldiers for the Second World War, and as base for 3rd Battalion, Werriwa Regiment. The interior was remodelled to create an art gallery in 1984, and in 2004 the building was heritage-listed. Temporary exhibitions of the national collection were held in the hall while the National Gallery of Australia was being built. ANU took over the hall in 1992 to exhibit its own collection of artworks, and also as a venue for temporary exhibitions.[61]
There are four separate exhibition spaces, which provide the venues not only for exhibitions developed by or in collaboration with the university, but also to accompany major conferences and public events. The venue hosts both national and international exhibitions. Sidney Nolan's panorama, Riverbend, which comprises nine panels, ís on permanent display at the Drill Hall Gallery.[61]
Academic structure
Colleges
ANU was reorganised in 2006 to create seven Colleges, each of which leads both teaching and research.[15] Additional restructuring occurred in 2017, resulting in changes to the names and schools within the Colleges.[62]
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Llewllyn Hall, ANU School of Music
The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences is divided into the Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) and Research School of Humanities and the Arts (RSHA). Within RSSS there are schools and centres dedicated to History, Philosophy, Sociology, Politics & International Relations, Demography, Arab and Islamic Studies, and European Studies, as well as the Australian National Centre for Latin and American Studies,[63] Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research,[64] and the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods.[65]
RSHA contains schools of Archaeology and Anthropology; Art & Design; and Literature, Languages and Linguistics, the latter of which include departments focusing on Linguistics & Applied Linguistics; English, Screen, Drama & Gender Studies; Languages & Cultures, and Classical Studies. RSHA also houses the ANU School of Music.[66] 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.[67]
The college is also home to the Australian Studies Institute.[68]
The college's School of Philosophy houses the ANU Centre for Consciousness, ANU Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences, and ANU Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory, an organization whose purpose is to "become a world-leading forum for exposition and analysis of the evolution, structure, and implications of our moral, social and political life."[69][70][71][72] Its president is Nicholas Southwood and key people include Seth Lazar, Geoff Brennan, Bob Goodin, Frank Jackson, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith.[when?][citation needed]
The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific is a specialist centre of Asian and Pacific studies and languages, among the largest collections of experts in these fields of any university in the English-speaking world.[73] The college is home to four academic schools: the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, a research intensive public policy school; the School of Culture, History and Language, for studies of Asia-Pacific people and languages;[74] the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, covering politics and international affairs of Asia and the Pacific; and the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet, formerly the Regulatory Institutions Network), study of regulation and governance.[75][76]
The college also houses the Australian Centre on China in the World, the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, Australia.[77] It has dedicated regional institutes for China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The college hosts a series annual and biannual updates, on various regions in the Asia-Pacific. The Crawford School of Public Policy houses the Asia Pacific Arndt-Cohen Department of Economics, the Asia Pacific Network for Environmental Governance, the Australia-Japan Research Centre, The Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, the ANU National Security College, the East Asia Forum publication and a number of other centres.[78] The Crawford School of Public Policy also hosts offices and programs for the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Many high performing Year in Asia program students gain the opportunity to travel to an Asian country of their choosing to study for one year specializing in one Asian language.[79]
The ANU College of Engineering, Computing, and Cybernetics is divided into three Research Schools, which study a range of engineering, computer science, and cybernetics 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 the college 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, and Systems and Control.[84] Disciplinary areas include theories, operations and research in engineering applications,[85][86] with the emphasis on energy source.[87]
The ANU College of Law comprises the ANU Law School and ANU School of Legal Practice. The college covers legal research and teaching, with centres dedicated to commercial law, international law, public law and environmental law.[88] In addition to numerous research programs, the college offers the professional LL.B. and J.D. degrees. It is the 7th oldest[89] of Australia's 36 law schools and was ranked 2nd among Australian and 12th among world law schools by the 2018 QS Rankings.[90] Students are given the chance to spend three weeks in Geneva concerning the institutional practice of International Law.[91]
Physical, Life, Mathematical, and Environmental Sciences
The ANU College of Science comprises the Research Schools of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, and Physics; Fenner School of Environment and Society; Mathematical Sciences Institute; and Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science.[94] Under the direction of Mark Oliphant, nuclear physics was one of 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.[95] 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.[95] ANU has been home to eight particle accelerators over the years and operates the 14UD and LINAS accelerators.[96]Brian Schmidt (astrophysicist at Mount Stromlo Observatory) received the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Governance and funding
ANU is governed by a 15-member Council, whose members include the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.[97]Gareth Evans, a former Foreign Minister of Australia, was ANU Chancellor from 2010 to December 2019 and Brian Schmidt, an astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate, served as Vice-Chancellor from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2024.[98][99] Evans was succeeded as Chancellor by a fellow former Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, in January 2020.[100][101] Schmidt was succeeded as Vice-Chancellor by cultural anthropologist and Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell in January 2024.[99]
Finances
At the end of 2018, ANU recorded an endowment of A$1.8 billion.[17]
In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020, ANU was ranked 6th in the world for geology, 7th for philosophy, 8th in the world for politics, 9th in the world for sociology, 13th in the world for development studies and 15th in the world for linguistics.[115]
A 2023 study by Times Higher Education reported that ANU was the world's 27th (first in Australia) most international university.[116]
In the 2022 Times Higher Education Global Employability University Ranking, an annual ranking of university graduates' employability, ANU was ranked 35th in the world (first in Australia).[117]
Student life
Australian National University Students' Association (ANUSA) is the students' union of the Australian National University and represents undergraduate and ANU College students, 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 one of the student publications of the Australian National University, first formed in 1950. 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. Most of the newspaper since its beginnings have been digitised through the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program of the National Library of Australia. Woroni also features an online radio broadcast, Woroni Radio, as well as video production through Woroni TV.
The ANU Observer
The ANU Observer is another of the Australian National University's student news publications. Founded in 2017, Observer is an online news site that covers breaking campus news, student life, student politics, arts and culture, sports, university policy and more. The ANU Observer is an ANU student association, meaning all students are members by default (and can attend and vote at General Meetings.)[118] Observer also produces a weekly podcast called Our Experts Have Observed, which can be accessed via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
2023 attack
In September 2023, an ex-student stabbed two female students and assaulted a male student with a frying pan. There were several injuries but no fatalities.[119] ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop later called for the ACT government to explain why the university was not informed of the risk beforehand.[120]
Network compromise
The network of the university was subject to serious compromise from November 9 to December 21, 2018. ABC News reported that the initial breach occurred when a phishing message was previewed.[121][122] After investigating, the university published a report on the incident.[123]Recommendations from the Chief Information Security Officer to avoid further compromise are generally applicable.