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University of New England, Australia
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The University of New England (UNE) is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales.
The University of New England was the first Australian university established outside a capital city.
Each year, the University offers students more than $2.5 million in scholarships, prizes, and bursaries and more than $18 million for staff and students involved in research.citation needed
History
The University of New England was originally formed in 1938 as the New England University College, a College of the University of Sydney. It became fully independent in 1954.
The University of New England has undergone two major changes since 1989. The University of New England Act, 1989, created a network University consisting of: (i) a campus at Armidale, incorporating the former University of New England and the former Armidale College of Advanced Education; and (ii) a campus at Lismore, incorporating the former Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education. The following year the Orange Agricultural College joined the network University. The network also included the UNE-Coffs Harbour Centre, which provided courses from within academic departments of the Armidale and Lismore campuses.
The University of New England has been re-formed once again, with legislation (The University of New England Act, 1993 and the Southern Cross University Act, 1993) passed by both Houses of the New South Wales Parliament in November, 1993. This legislation had the effect of dismantling the network University. The University of New England from 1994 has only one campus, at Armidale. A new University (Southern Cross University) was created with campuses in Lismore and Coffs Harbour; the Orange campus was amalgamated with the University of Sydney.
The University of New England has, since 1989, included the former Armidale College of Advanced Education, which was amalgamated with the Armidale campus at the time of the creation of the network University. This process of amalgamation was complete by the time of the new legislation in 1993, and the dismantling of the network University had no effect on its status.
Characteristics
The University of New England is a research and teaching university with prominent courses such as law and medicine on offer.
In research, among many areas, it is particularly active in agricultural science, economics, linguistics and archaeology. The university averages approximately 500 PhD candidates at a given time.citation needed
Campus
An aerial view of part of UNE’s Armidale campus, showing the historic Boolominbah building.
The University of New England is located on several sites in Armidale. The northern campus of the University is five kilometres to the northwest of the city centre, in a rural and bushland setting. Part of this campus includes the original property presented by the late Mr T R Forster to the University of Sydney for the establishment of a University College. This property comprised the old homestead, 'Booloominbah', together with several other buildings and 74 hectares of land. Since the original gift, a number of other generous benefactors have presented properties to the University, whose Armidale site now comprises some 260 hectares.citation needed
Booloominbah and the Vice-Chancellor's residence Trevenna were both designed by architect John Horbury Hunt.
The Newling campus of the University includes the Newling Centre, home to the New England Conservatorium of Music, and other buildings associated with the former Armidale College of Advanced Education. The University also possesses a number of rural properties in close proximity to the campus, providing facilities for teaching and research. In addition, there are the 'Tullimba' rural research property at Kingstown and the Douglas McMaster Rural Research Station at Warialda.
The University of New England has one of the most extensive residential college systems in Australia. Around half of UNE’s on campus students live in one of the colleges.
Research
Collaborative research with other institutions includes projects with the CSIRO and the high profile Cooperative Research Centres.
UNE's principal research flagship is Animal Genetics which is serviced by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) and delivered commercially by the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI). Other research flagships include:
- Rural Education which is undertaken by the National Centre of Science, Information and Communication Technology, and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), and
- Rural Communities, Landscapes and Practices which is led by the Institute for Rural Futures (IRF).
Faculties and Schools
The research and teaching staff of the University of New England, Australia, is divided into two faculties, which are in turn divided into a number of multi-disciplinary schools. As of 2005, each faculty is headed by an Executive Dean. The faculties and schools are as follows:
- Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- School of Arts
- School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences
- School of Humanities
- School of Environmental and Rural Science
- School of Science and Technology
- Faculty of the Professions
- School of Business, Economics and Public Policy
- School of Law
- School of Education
- School of Health
- School of Rural Medicine
The University currently offers over 200 programs in 22 discipline areas.
Residential colleges
The University of New England has one of the most extensive residential college systems in Australia. Around half of UNE’s on campus students live in one of the colleges.
Administration
Chancellors
Vice-Chancellors
- Sir Robert Madgwick (1954-1966)
- Sir Zelman Cowen (1966-1970)
- Professor Alec Lazenby (1970-1977)
- Mr Ronald Gates (1977-1985)
- Professor Lawrence W Nicol (1985-1988)
- Professor Don McNicol (1988-1990)
- Professor Robert HT Smith (1990-1994)
- Professor Bruce Thom (1994-1996)
- Professor Professor Ingrid Moses (1997-2006)
- Professor Alan Pettigrew (2006-present)
Alumni
More than 75,000 people now hold UNE qualifications, with many in senior positions in Australia and overseas.
See also
External links
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