Curtin University of Technology

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Curtin University of Technology

Motto	Look Ever Forward
Established	1987
Type	Public
Chancellor	Mr Gordon Martin
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Jeanette Hacket
Faculty	4 500
Undergraduates	31 500
Postgraduates	7 600
Location	Bentley, Western Australia, Australia
Campus	Urban
Organisations	Australian Technology Network
Website	www.curtin.edu.au

Curtin University of Technology is a technology-focused university with its main campus at Bentley, a suburb of the local government area Town of Victoria Park, Western Australia. It commenced operations with its current name in 1986, and was previously known as the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT). Its current name is taken from the former Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin.[1]

Curtin University of Technology is Western Australia's largest university[2] with over 39,000 students, of which over 9,000 study offshore.[3] There are five main divisions at Curtin: Business; Engineering, Science and Computing; Health Sciences; Humanities; and Resources and Environment. While not considered one of Australia's 'big' research universities, Curtin has a growing reputation for research success in specific areas.^{[citation needed]}

Curtin has several campuses outside of Perth, notably those located in Kalgoorlie, Muresk (Northam), and Miri, as well as a new campus in Sydney (2005). The first two campuses reflect the university's traditional strength in mine engineering (Kalgoorlie), and agriculture and resources (Muresk). A number of micro-campuses exist in locations such as Esperance, Margaret River and Geraldton, Nursing is the only course offered in Geraldton.

The Miri campus in Sarawak, Malaysia, is a significant development for the university. Previously, many students from Asian nations have been taught in so-called offshore programs, through local non-university education providers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. These students received Curtin University degrees, but were not formally studying 'at Curtin'. Now, at Miri, a complete campus of the university, rather than partner institutions, has been established.

Curtin has become increasingly popular in mainland China in recent years, thanks to accomplished marketing efforts. The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao chose to visit Woodside-funded hydrocarbon research facility on its campus during his visit to Australia.[4]

Contents 1 History 2 Merger plans 3 Bentley Campus 3.1 Library 3.2 Commercials 3.3 Computer Labs 3.4 Food Outlets 4 Student Guild 5 Student Clubs 6 Transportation 6.1 Bentley campus 7 Security 8 Sarawak Campus 9 Alumni 10 External links

[edit] History

Prior to 1986, Curtin University was called the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT). WAIT was formed in 1966. Its nucleus comprised the tertiary programs formerly conducted in the Perth Technical College which opened in 1900. In 1969 three more institutions were merged with WAIT: The W.A. School of Mines (originally opened in 1902), the Muresk Agricultural College (dating from 1926) and schools of physiotherapy and occupational therapy in operation since the 1950s at Shenton Park.[5]

Upon becoming a university, Curtin became eligible to grant doctorates by research, and to compete for research funding.

[edit] Merger plans

Curtin University of Technology and Murdoch University were engaged in a feasibility study into the possibility of a merger (June 2005).[6] However, on 7 November 2005, both institutions issued a press release that such a merger will not be undertaken.[7]

[edit] Bentley Campus

Places of interest recommended to students studying at Curtin on the Bentley Campus include:

[edit] Library

Robertson Library

• The only general library on campus, located in building 105. For more info, see the Library web site.

Teaching Resources Library

• Contains resources of particular use to students studying Education, located in building 501.

[edit] Commercials

Pharmacy

• Stocks a selection of drugs and pharmaceutical goods, such as antibiotics, paracetamol, wound dressings, etc.

Ink Shop

[edit] Computer Labs

Abacus Lab

• General access labs located in buildings 303, 408 and 501.
• Provides PCs running Windows XP, as well as a handful of Macs and scanning and printing stations.
• See Abacus Labs web site for more info.

Computing Lab

• Labs are located at building 314.
• Labs restricted to students undertaking Department of Computing units.

Mathematics Lab

• Lab is Located at building 314.
• Labs restricted to students undertaking Department of Mathematics and Statistics units.

CBS Labs

• Labs are located at building 402.
• Labs restricted to students undertaking Curtin Business School units.

Engineering Labs

• Labs are located at building 204 on levels 2 and 3.
• Labs restricted to students undertaking Department of Engineering units.
• Level 2 labs are restricted to final year engineering students including postgraduate students.
• Level 3 labs are available for use by all engineering students with the exception of Engineering First Year labs which are only available for students undertaking Department of Engineering first year units.

Criticisms

• Recently there has been a network outage on the 6th of November, 2006 for all computer labs around the university. This is expected to last 36 hours. Students were unable to log into their accounts nor use the internet during this time.

[edit] Food Outlets

Main Cafeteria

• Located in the Guild Precinct, building 106.
• Wide range of standard dishes and large eating area.
• Provides a special for selected food on weekdays.
  • Mondays: Nachos
  • Tuesdays: Small curry rice
  • Wednesdays: Roast roll
  • Thursdays: Small pasta
  • Fridays: Fish and chips

Noodle house

• Located in building 104 next to Main Cafe.
• Affordable noodle and rice meals available.
• Mexican food also available.

Curtin Concept

• Known by its regulars as "Frank's".
• Located in the Guild Precinct, building 106
• Serves smoothies, ice cream, cakes and various other sweets.
• Has crazy music playing all the time.

Simply Delicious

• Unique and stylish food available here.
• Microwave food, take away.

Bookmark Cafe

• Located on the first floor of the Library building, right near the Library entrance. Building 105.
• Excellent food.
• Good meeting place for students.

The Vege Patch

• Located in building 210 (near Elizabeth Jolley lecture theatre).
• Healthy alternative on campus, with fresh salads, pastas, sushi and vegetarian meals.

Café Angazi

• Located in building 408, the new business school area.
• Coffee, cakes and light meals available.

Kirribilli Café

• Located in building 200 (John Curtin Centre).
• "Five star modern, Australian cuisine in a sophisticated setting".

The Basement

• Located in building 204 (Engineering building).
• Certified Halal

George's Kebabs

• Located before The Tav.
• Non-microwave food take away.

The Tav

• Located in the Guild Precinct, building 106.
• Usually has plenty of bands on Friday night as well as other times (usually advertised beforehand)
• Cheap beer and the large indoor/outdoor area allows for much enjoyment between classes.

There is also a few food outlets, a 10 minutes' walk away at Manning Road and Kent Street, Karawara, where cheap barbecue chicken on rice and various other food options are available.

[edit] Student Guild

The Curtin Student Guild is the student representative association at Curtin University. The Guild started as the WAIT Student Guild in November 1968. In addition to student representation the Guild manages most of the food outlets on campus, runs the Guild Tavern, the Second Hand Bookshop, Concept Store, Curtin Student Guild Childcare Centre and the Copy and Design Centre. The Guild funds many of the student clubs and societies on campus. The Guild also runs a number of events throughout the year, most notably are the Beach Bash held in semester one and Oktoberfest held in semester two. The Guild publishes Grok, the campus magazine which has the largest distribution in the country. The Student Guild is governed by students through the Guild Council. Student representatives are elected to their positions by students in annual elections held in September and run by the Western Australian Electoral Commission. The official spokesperson of which is the Guild President. The 2006 Guild President is Kate Meenan.

Postgraduate students are represented by Curtin Student Guild Postgraduate Student Association. CUPSA is a department of the Guild. Other departments include ISC (International Students Committee), Women’s, Queer, Indigenous, and Part Time and Mature Age.

Funding to the Curtin Student Guild will be greatly reduced when the Voluntary Student Unionism legislation comes into force on 1 July 2006. The Curtin Student Guild has already experienced State imposed VSU from 1994-2002.

For more information, see the Guild website.

[edit] Student Clubs

Antics

Antics is one of the largest non divisional social club on campus with over 400 members. It was formed in 2004 by a group who noticed that there was no definitive 'drinking' or 'social' club on campus. Antics runs a number events throughout the year including pub crawls and quiz nights. Antics website.

Beer Appreciation Club (BAC)

The Beer Appreciation Club is one of the largest non divisional social clubs on campus with over 450 members. It was founded in 2005 after a group of beer loving mates decided to spread the word of the amber fluid to the general student populous. Contrary to the name it isn't all about drinking with the rare educational talk. BAC are famous for the best pub crawls on campus, and also run social events at the tavern. For more information go to the Beer Appreciation Club website.

CEC

The Curtin Engineers Club is the largest student club at Curtin University and has many social activities designed to allow students from different engineering fields to keep in contact with each other. It comprises of the famous 'beers on the lawn', giant pub crawls and the biggest Ball of the year in conjunction with SUN, The Nurses Club. The club is affiliated with The Institute of Engineers Australia, and Young Engineers Australia providing a link to the Engineering profession with Face to Face Expo's and Conferences. The club is always working on other academic activities and services to help engineering students. Whilst it is primarily for engineering students, membership is open to anyone. For more information go to the CEC website.

CMA

The Curtin Marketing Association (CMA), is a student association from the Curtin Business School, a division of Curtin University of Technology. The sole mission of the Curtin Marketing Association is 'To foster relationships between students, academics, industry, the community, and other associations for the purpose of establishing cohesive links between educational concepts and real world practice in the marketing profession'. CMA essentially enables students to be interactive within their environment. CMA is open for all students at Curtin University, provides various discounts for members, and encourages a range of activities, both social and academic. For more information please go to the Curtin Marketing Association website.

CMSA

CMSA (Curtin Muslim Student Association) is a non-profit religious society within Curtin University dedicated to promote the well being of Muslim students through the provision of religious, social and academic activities and to promote the Islamic vision of the unity of Human kind.

The CMSA promotes a better and more accurate understanding of Islam as a way of life and represents the interest of Muslim students and endeavours to maximise social interaction among them. CMSA website

ComSSA

ComSSA is the student academic and social club for the department of Computing at Curtin. ComSSA is well known for the social activities it runs throughout the year and provides academic services such as feedback to the department and university, computing related seminars, career expo's, etc. While Computing students are automatically ComSSA members, students from other schools and departments may also join. For more information, see the ComSSA website.

GEOS

Geos is the social club which caters to students of Geology, Geophysics and other geology related courses in the Resource and Environment division. It regularly organizes social events, principally related to the consumption of alcohol, but often also industry and career related events. Currently, GEOS is petitioning the university to provide a student common room for Geology students.

PHYSSED

The PHYSSED club is for any physics students studying at Curtin, also catering for those with physics based units as part of their course. PHYSSED runs a variety of social events throughout the year, from pub crawls to barbecues to fund raising events like a Mexicana themed bash. The PHYSSED common room is a good place to ask odd questions about assignments, exchange study notes, or hang out with fellow students between classes.

S.C.U.M.

S.C.U.M. (Students of Curtin University Mathematics) is a social club which caters to students of Maths or maths related courses at Curtin. It regularly organizes social events, as well as other activities such as maths help clinics. If you like maths but are not studying it you can still become a member.

TPSA

The Town Planning Students Association is the student representative body and social club for the 100-odd students studying town planning at Curtin. Its duties and representative role for the students has become increasingly important in recent years due to the critical lack of professionally recognised urban planners in national and international cities. The TPSA regularly hold social events usually involving the consumption of alcohol with the adopted association motto being 'Planners who drink together, stick together' or 'Planners who drink together, plan better'. The Urban and Regional Planning course held at Curtin is the only undergraduate degree for urban planning in Western Australia. The Architecture and Planning building, number 201 is one of the most distinctive buildings on campus, and was designed by Public Works Architect Vin Davies, and built in 1971.

WASSSA

WASSSA is a club for the spatial sciences. It regularly organizes social events, principally related to the consumption of alcohol, but often also industry and career related events. There is a Dinner Dance each year

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Bentley campus

Car

There are several car parks around the campus, for staff and student use. Finding an appropriate parking spot, however, is notoriously difficult during the day, with students often having to resort to so-called 'temporary' (read: unpaved) parking areas. For more info, see the Parking and Traffic web site. The parking situation has regularly been labelled as disgraceful by students. Some also question the hundreds of staff bays always empty and wonder if they would be better used as student parking. One Journalism student revealed that in a whole semester, he was unable to find a parking bay. Students are permitted to park in staff bays after 5pm and before 8am on weekdays and all day on weekends.

Students and staff are not allowed to park on the grass. Due to the lack of parking spaces available however, it has 'forced' students to park on road verges and grass areas especially during the starting period of the semester. A fine of AUD$20-30 is enforced throughout the campus for all vehicles parked on the grass or otherwise.

Public transport

Transperth provides several bus services to and from Bentley, see Curtin University Bus Station for more details.

[edit] Security

Curtin University provides on-site security 24 hours a day for students and staff. Recently, they have announced a budget funding of AUD$2.5 million to improve the security state around the campus. The core of the proposed security improvements is the expansion of the building swipe card access system and additional campus lighting in some areas.

The campus provides a transportation service during the evening towards the late night. This service enables staff and students to be dropped off at parking bays or at their respective housing units for free. Currently, 1 van operates in a circle route in which a drop-on/drop-off system is implemented. The loading zones include from start to finish: (1)T.L. Robertson Library (2)

Criticism

Over a period of three years, the campus has seen a lapse in security,^{[verification needed]} which has resulted in an increase in the number of reported burglaries, serious assaults, arson and theft.^{[citation needed]} Although security personnel are present on campus 24 hours a day, the lack of security provided has angered students.^{[verification needed]} Campus lighting is generally considered inadequate.^{[verification needed]}

The lack of security may be exacerbated by the recurring repairs and/or maintenance conducted on building 204's (General Engineering) door swipe-card system and the resources required to monitor it in the case of doors left ajar. An (optimistic) estimated response time from a door being left open until the arrival of a security officer is 8 minutes.^{[citation needed]}

The percentage of students stating in the Curtin Annual Student Satisfaction Survey that they felt safe on campus increased from 80 to 86 percent between 2004 and 2005, but then dropped to 66 percent in 2006. In 2005, 74 percent were satisfied with security, while nine percent were dissatisfied. The corresponding figures for 2006 were 56 percent and 24 percent.[8]

[edit] Sarawak Campus

Curtin's operations in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia began in February 1999. In 2002, a purpose-built campus was opened as Curtin's first offshore campus and the first foreign university campus in East Malaysia.

Curtin Sarawak is the only approved CISCO Networking University in Miri and Brunei.[9]

[edit] Alumni

Past Curtin attendees include:

• John Butler, musician
• Priya Cooper, Gold medal swimmer at the Sydney Paralympic Games
• Richard Curry, head of the Department of Indigenous Affairs
• Martin Dougiamas, creator of moodle
• Amanda Higgs, producer of The Secret Life Of Us
• Sheila McHale, Cabinet minister in the Government of Western Australia
• Frances O'Connor, actress
• Ljiljanna Ravlich, Cabinet minister in the Government of Western Australia
• Tony Ronaldson, currently a basketball player for the Perth Wildcats
• Tim Winton, author
• John Worsfold, coach of the West Coast Eagles
• Natalia Cooper, weatherwoman from National Nine News on Nine Perth.

[edit] External links

• Curtin University Home Page
• Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak Campus